BLOOD TRADE: SETBACKS FOR THE BELTRAN LEYVA CARTEL

Memphis Commercial Appeal Posted July 4, 2010 at 12:01
a.m.

Craig Petties' January 2008 arrest in central Mexico was one of a
series of setbacks for the Beltran Leyva cartel, the Mexican criminal
organization he's accused of working with.

Later that month, the Mexican military arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva,
one of the brothers in the group's leadership.

The remaining Beltran Leyva brothers believed that the Sinaloa Cartel,
a group they had been associated with, had betrayed Alfredo, according
to a report by George W. Grayson, a professor at the College of
William & Mary who has studied drug violence.

Gunmen used bazookas and high-powered firearms to kill the son of
Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera in a supermarket
parking lot, Grayson wrote.

It would be one of hundreds of killings in a cartel war, the Los
Angeles Times reported. Posters with the Beltran Leyva signature,
"boss of bosses" turned up alongside decapitated bodies.

The Beltran Leyva brothers would soon become known not just for
violence, but for building up an intelligence network at the highest
levels of Mexican government.

In late 2008, several top-level Mexican officials were arrested,
including Noe Ramirez, the former drug czar. He was accused of taking
$450,000 per month from the Beltran Leyva cartel in exchange for
sensitive information, according to The Associated Press.

About a year later, on Dec. 17, 2009, Mexican Marines went after
another leading member of the cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, in an
upscale apartment north of Mexico City.

At the end of a lengthy battle fought with grenades and guns, the
kingpin was dead, along with six of his men.

For a moment, it seemed like a victory in the drug war. The Marines
lost one man, Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, whom they buried with honors.

But after the funeral, assassins broke into a house and killed the
Marine's mother, his aunt, a sister, and a brother.

Shortly thereafter, Petties was moved from the federal lockup in
Memphis to another federal institution in Tallahassee, Fla. He arrived
on Dec. 29. The Bureau of Prisons won't say why he was moved.

"An inmate can be moved for any number of reasons," spokeswoman
Felicia Ponce said. "It's really hard to speculate why they would be
moved."

Just last month, Petties was indicted for having weapons while
imprisoned in Memphis.

As the Beltran Leyva group has stumbled, the Sinaloa Cartel has gained
power. It appears to have won control of key trafficking routes
through Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border, beating the rival Juarez
Cartel in a vicious feud that has killed more than 5,000 people since
2008, The Associated Press reported in April.