Sunday, June 1, 2025

Nuevo León plaza chief of Beltrán Leyva cartel killed in Jalisco

A Nuevo León plaza chief of the Beltrán Leyva cartel has been identified as the victim in a murder yesterday in Zapopan, Jalisco.

The wife of Héctor Huerta Ríos identified the body of her husband after he was killed in what was believed to be a dispute with another cartel boss over territory in San Pedro Garza García, part of the metropolitan area of Monterrey.

He was murdered while traveling in a vehicle with his wife and two young daughters.

Huerta was arrested in 2009 by the army at his luxury car lot in San Pedro Garza García along with four bodyguards. Federal forces confiscated high-caliber weapons, grenades, over US $13,000 in US and Mexican currency and 18 luxury vehicles.

He was charged with organized crime and the 2006 murder of the director of the Nuevo León Investigations Agency. He has also been linked to the 2009 assassination of a lawyer.

Huerta was released from prison a year ago.

The murder is the latest downward turn in the Beltrán Leyva cartel’s fortunes after most of the organization’s leaders were either captured or killed in recent years, including its best-known leader, Héctor Beltrán Leyva, who was arrested in 2014 and died of a heart attack in jail in November of last year.

Two other Beltrán Leyva brothers, out of four founders of the criminal organization, are currently in jail, and another was killed in 2009.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)

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