Hector Beltran Leyva runs what he has dubbed in recent months the South Pacific Cartel. Its central point of operations is the Acapulco Cuernavaca corridor, an area in near constant dispute because of its value for drug trafficking organizations. He is the last Beltran Leyva free and alive. He has seen two brothers, Carlos and Alfredo, go to jail and another, Arturo, die in a hail of bullets in December 2009 at the hands of the Mexican Marines. Hector runs what’s left of the organization in conjunction with the Zetas, the group’s former rivals who split from the Gulf Cartel to former their own drug trafficking organization. While he has long operated the financial wing of the group and was responsible for keeping politicians and police on the payroll, Hector was not the obvious choice to head the operations, and his tenure has coincided with a decline in the group's power.
Hector is battling with many former allies, including members of the Sinaloa Cartel and members of his former security wing run by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "La Barbie," who was arrested in August 2010.
Resources
- U.S. Department of State Narcotics Rewards Program: Hector Beltran Leyva
