MEXICO CITY - Federal authorities apprehended the leader of the cultlike, pseudo-Christian La Familia cartel on Tuesday, saying they had dealt a debilitating blow to a major organized crime group that terrorized western Mexico.
Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, alias El Chango, or "The Monkey," was arrested in the central state of Aguascalientes without confrontation or casualties, said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire.
"With this arrest, what remained of the structure of this criminal organization has been destroyed," Poire told a news conference.
With the death of La Familia founder and leader Nazario Moreno Gonzalez in December, Poire said Mendez was "the last remaining head of a criminal group responsible for homicides, kidnappings, extortion, corruption and even cowardly attacks on the authorities and the civilian population."
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But the leadership of a violent splinter group, known as the Knights Templar, remains at large.
President Felipe Calderón personally lauded the arrest on his Twitter account, calling it a "big blow" to organized crime. The cartel was born in Calderón's home state of Michoacan in 2006, prompting him to deploy thousands of federal police there and warning that La Familia was corrupting local officials, extorting businesses and terrorizing the population.
According to the reward statement issued by the Attorney General's Office, Mendez was "responsible for the transfer and sale of cocaine, marijuana, crystal methamphetamine in various states of Mexico and the United States. He is the alleged mastermind of kidnappings and killings, mainly of members of other criminal organizations."
The government had offered a $2.5 million reward for his capture.
Four years ago, La Familia rolled five severed heads into a Michoacan nightclub, vowing to protect local citizens from rival cartels.
Moreno - the group's founder - set a code of conduct for its members that prohibited the use of hard drugs or dealing them within Mexican territory, even as they gruesomely decapitated foes and sold cocaine and methamphetamine by the ton.
"They believe they are doing God's work, and pass out Bibles and money to the poor," according to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration profile. "La Familia Michoacana also gives money to school and local officials."
