Only 48 hours after a top cartel boss in Mexico placed an assassination hit on one of the contributing writers for Breitbart Texas’s Cartel Chronicles project, Mexican military forces captured him.
This week, Cesar “El Boto” or “El Marrueco” Sepulveda Arellano, a leading member of Los Viagras Cartel, placed a $100,000 USD hit on Breitbart Texas’s Jose Luis Lara. The former founding member of the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacan writes about terrorist actions by cartels and their corrupt government enablers in that state and beyond.
The assassination order was posted on social media through various Facebook accounts. A similar threat was also spread via audio recording where El Boto declared Lara a spy for the United States.
El Boto called for the leaders of rival cartels to strike common cause against Lara.
Only 48 hours after El Boto issued the threats, the Mexican Army and Navy followed an anonymous tip to a house in Morelos–where they arrested him.
Almost immediately after authorities arrested El Boto, members of Los Viagras began signaling each other on social media with orders to delete any Facebook accounts in contact with those previously used by their captured leader.
Earlier this year, Lara and the Cartel Chronicles project published an exclusive report on how members of Los Viagras are able to live in Michoacan and interact with government forces while illegally armed. Days later, the Mexican government arrested Yordi “El H” Oseguera aka “Jordi Villa Patricio,” one of the cartel bosses photographed with military forces. In response, Los Viagras deployed gunmen to set blockades on all the major highways in the state and torched dozens of vehicles to force El Yordi’s release, Breitbart Texas reported.
Days after Los Viagras’ retaliatory measures, top leader Nicolas “El Gordo” Sierra Santana published a video claiming Michoacan Governor Silvano Aureoles paid him for votes and offered cash for peace during the recent national elections.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
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