Mexico Arrests Oscar Garcia Montoya Suspected Drug Cartel Hitman

August 12, 2011

Mexican authorities say they have arrested a suspected gang leader who they say has admitted to murdering — and ordering the murders — of 600 people.

Prosecutor Alfredo Castillo told reporters police had arrested Oscar Garcia Montoya Thursday in the capital, Mexico City. He identified the suspect as the head of the violent drug gang “Mano con Ojos” or “Hand with Eyes,” an offshoot of the notorious Beltran Levya drug cartel.

The prosecutor said Montoya told police he had executed 300 people and ordered the executions of 300 more.

Castillo said Montoya is a former corporal in the Navy, had received special military training in Guatemala, and served as a police officer in northern Mexico before joining the Beltran Levya gang.

The arrest comes just two weeks after Mexico announced the arrest of another suspected hitman leader, Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, who has admitted to ordering 1,500 killings. Acosta is the suspected chieftain of La Linea gang, in northern Mexico, whose members act as enforcers for the Juarez drug cartel.

In 2006, President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led crackdown on Mexico's drug cartels. Since then, more than 41,000 people have died in violence linked to the drug gangs.