Mexico’s ‘craziest one’ drug lord killed… again

Known as “el mas loco,” or the “craziest one,” Nazario Moreno led a violent drug cartel that has savaged the western state of Michoacan.

The previous government said Moreno was killed in a firefight in December 2010, but his body was never found and he was widely believed to have survived.

Having discovered Moreno was still alive and leading the Knights Templar drug gang, Mexico’s armed forces set about tracking down the kingpin inside Michoacan.

On Sunday morning, members of the army and navy found Moreno in Tumbiscatio, a village in Michoacan about 50km north of the port of Lazaro Cardenas, and shot him dead in a gunfight when he refused to turn himself in.

Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said the death of Moreno, who the government said had been the undisputed boss of the Knights Templar, would shore up support for the government’s efforts.

Going for ‘La Tuta’

But Mr Benitez said that to convince the public, the government had to go after the man who has been the face of the gang since Moreno first “died”: Servando Gomez, also known as the “La Tuta”, as well as his lieutenant Enrique Plancarte.

“The government has to capture La Tuta to claim success,” said Mr Benitez.

“(Moreno’s death) is a success, but it’s not the whole game of football. It’s a goal scored in the first half. Plancarta and La Tuta are still missing,” he added.

In January Channel 4 News gained rare access to Mr Gomez.

Having recovered the body this time around, the government said it had identified Moreno using fingerprints it had from his military service, security spokesman Alejandro Rubido said.

More from Channel 4 News: From Shorty to Crazy to Crutches - how Mexico's drug lords got their nicknames

Moreno’s death is a major boost for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has sent hundreds of extra troops to Michoacan and appointed a special commissioner to oversee the state after admitting the government had lost control of parts of it to organised crime.

Mexican vigilantes

The Knights Templar had much of Michoacan in its power until local vigilante groups rose up against the cartel at the start of this year and began to overrun its strongholds.

The government has formed an uneasy alliance with the vigilantes to bring the Knights Templar to heel, but fears that the so-called self-defence groups have been penetrated by organised crime created doubts about Pena Nieto’s strategy.

Mr Pena Nieto took office pledging to restore stability to Mexico, where more than 85,000 people have died in cartel-related violence since his predecessor Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against the gangs at the end of 2006.

Bit by bit, Mr Pena Nieto has started to deliver results, and two weeks ago marines captured the country’s most wanted drug baron, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman.