Development: On 18 November Mexico’s interior ministry (Segob) reported that Héctor ‘El Ingeniero’ Beltrán Leyva died after suffering a heart attack.
Significance: Beltrán Leyva, who has been imprisoned since 2014, was identified as the one of the leaders of the Beltrán Leyva drug trafficking organisation (DTO) and one of the country’s most powerful and violent crime bosses. His death comes as the trial of another one of Mexico’s leading drug traffickers, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, the suspected main leader of the Sinaloa/Pacífico DTO, continues in the US, where the authorities are trying to fully clear up the Sinaloa/Pacífico DTO power structure. Beltrán Leyva has previously been indicated as the man that introduced Guzmán into the drug trafficking business.
- Beltrán Leyva was arrested on drug trafficking and murder charges in both the US and Mexico. But his extradition to the US was blocked by a Mexican judge in April 2017 on procedural grounds. Since his arrest, Beltrán Leyva has been held in prison in Mexico City awaiting trial and the result of an expected appeal in favour of his extradition.
- However, yesterday Segob reported the 56-year-old Beltrán Leyva had to be rushed to hospital in the city of Toluca after he appeared to have suffered a heart attack in his cell. According to an official statement, guards found Beltrán Leyva collapsed in his cell, and after trying to revive him he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead a few hours later.
- The Beltrán Leyva DTO is one of the main rivals of the Sinaloa/Pacífico DTO and the two have long been engaged in a turf war for control of drug trafficking routes into the US. However, according to the local press, it was Beltrán Leyva who introduced Guzmán, a distant cousin, into the illegal drug trafficking business before the two fell out in 2008 and Guzmán established the Sinaloa/Pacífico DTO.
Looking Ahead: The timing of Beltrán Leyva’s death is unfortunate given that prosecutors in the US are currently seeking to determine the extent of Guzmán’s power and influence and it is believed that Beltrán Leyva may have been able to provide valuable information in this regard.
