Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico (AHN) – The Mexican military arrested another drug kingpin Sunday, dealing what the Mexican government calls a “resounding blow” to the cartels that have waged a four-year war to control smuggling into the United States.
Sergio Villareal Barragan was arrested without firing a shot at a house in an upscale neighborhood in the central state of Puebla.
The arrest was greeted with mixed sentiments among Mexican politicians. Some said it showed President Felipe Calderon is winning his war against the drug cartels.
Others said it was another sign the war that has claimed more than 28,000 lives since it started in December 2006 continues with no end in sight.
Calderon’s opponents in the Mexican Congress say the continuing violence could be opening the doors for foreign intervention.
Barragan is known as “El Grande,” or the Big One, and is reputed to be a leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel, one of Mexico’s biggest and most deadly.
“This is a new and resounding blow by the federal government against crime, given the high rank and dangerousness of this person inside one of the country’s most extensive criminal organizations which has now been deeply weakened,” said Mexican government spokesman Alejandro Poire.
The Mexican government was offering a $2 million reward for his arrest. Two accomplices were arrested with him. Three armored vehicles, weapons and ammunition were seized.
The capture of Barragan was the fourth among major cartel leaders in the past year. The others were Arturo Beltran Leyva, leader of Beltran Leyva cartel, Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel and Edgar Valdez Villarreal. Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout while Mexican soldiers surrounded his hideout to arrest him.
Acting on an intelligence report, a Special Forces unit of the Mexican Marines surrounded the house where Barragan was staying. They came equipped with 50-caliber machine guns and helicopter support.
The surprise appearance of the Marines caught Barragan off-guard, allowing him to be arrested without violence and transported to Mexico City by helicopter.
He is charged with organized crime activities. He also is the subject of seven Mexican federal investigations.
Barragan is a rival of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, an alleged ruthless assassin who is wanted in the United States on charges that he oversaw distribution of thousands of pounds of cocaine in Eastern states. Villareal was arrested Aug. 30.
The drug smuggling and violence associated with it has prompted the U.S. government to send more National Guard troops to the Mexican border and beef up its number of Border Patrol agents.
The military build-up at the border is prompting concern among Mexican politicians that it is a prelude to U.S. intervention.
Mexican Senator Carlos Jimenez Macias warned his fellow senators recently that their policy decisions in the drug war should avoid making Americans believe their national security is threatened. The result could be an increased U.S. military effort in Mexico that interferes with the country’s sovereignty.
President Calderon said in an interview on the American Spanish-language television channel Univision that the United States was contributing to the violence by failing to halt both arms imports into Mexico and the illegal drug market.
Violence by the drug cartels is “exacerbated by the sale… the irresponsible sale of arms in the United States,” Calderon said during the televised interview.
Calderon also rejected any idea of intervention by a United Nations’ peacekeeping team, saying the Mexican military “is truly a powerful force” that can handle the crisis by itself.
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