Gulf Cartel Boss Saenz Tamez Captured

The reputed leader of Mexico’s notorious Gulf drugs cartel, Juan Francisco Saenz Tamez, was arrested by federal agents while he was shopping in the town of Edinburg, in South Texas. Saenz Tamez was indicted by a United States grand jury in September 2013 on charges of drug trafficking stretching from Texas and Florida to Washington, D.C. and the eastern seaboard. He is charged with conspiracy in the shipping of thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border, and with money laundering. He is being held in Beaumont and faces life in prison. Prosecutors hope to seize as much as $100 million in assets he acquired during his chieftaincy. He’s the latest cartel capo to be arrested recently: Juarez cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes was caught this month, and Beltran Leyva boss Hector Beltran Leyva a few weeks before that.