One of the most wanted drug lords in Mexico has been captured, authorities said Friday.
Servando Gomez, known as La Tuta, the leader of the Knights Templar cartel, was arrested overnight, Mexican authorities told Telemundo.
Gomez, a former primary school teacher, was the target of a push by President Enrique Peña Nieto to regain control of the state of Michoacán, which has been wracked by clashes between the cartel and heavily armed vigilantes trying to oust them.
After months of intelligence work, federal police said they captured Gomez and some people with him early in the morning at a house in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. Police said no shots were fired.
Gomez, 49, was frog-marched in front of media cameras on Friday evening, his head shoved down by masked federal police officers grabbing the scruff of his neck and leading him to a helicopter to be flown to prison.
Gomez has made appearances in online statements and news interviews. In a statement in October, he vowed to “fight until the end.” And in an interview last year with Channel 4 of Britain, he revealed that he left teaching to become a drug boss.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since the Mexican government began a crackdown on cartels in 2007. Mexico had a $2 million bounty on Gomez.
