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Mexico captures head of Knights Templar drug cartel

Xinhua, February 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Mexican police on Friday captured one of the country's most wanted drug lords Servando "La Tuta" Gomez Martinez, head of the feared Knights Templar drug cartel.

The National Security Commission (CNS) said Gomez was seized in an early morning raid on a home in Morelia, capital of Michoacan, the central Mexico state the cartel has terrorized for years.

Gomez, wanted on charges of drug trafficking, homicide, kidnapping and extortion, among other crimes, was arrested along with several other accomplices in an operation following a months- long investigation, the CNS said, adding that no shots were fired.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, beset by numerous corruption scandals and one of the most shocking massacres in modern Mexican history, celebrated the capture via Twitter.

"After months of investigation, today they arrested Servando Gomez Martinez, alleged leader of a criminal ring," he posted online.

The government had been offering some 30 million pesos (just over 2 million U.S. dollars) for the teacher-turned-drug kingpin, who was also known as "El Profe," short for professor.

Unlike Mexico's other drug barons, Gomez was rather media friendly, giving interviews, making public speeches, and uploading videos of himself on YouTube.

Mexico's daily El Universal described him as "the most famous YouTuber of the 'Knights Templar.'"

In one video, Gomez told a gathered crowd, in what appeared to be a small Michoacan town, "we are a necessary evil and unfortunately, or fortunately, we are the ones who are here, because if not, it would be another (criminal) group."

In a recent recording, he admitted to having headed a reign of terror in his home state and said he regretted it, but he also seemed to view himself a victim of circumstances. In the recording he predicted that it would be his last, because the authorities will soon capture him.

The Knights Templar sparked a citizens' resistance movement to do what the local government was unable or unwilling to do, protect residents from the cartel. Enditem