Blog del Narco:  Caballeros Templarios Cartel Leader Arrested in Mexico City

A high-level member of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel was arrested in Mexico City by Federal Police officers, the National Security Commission said.

Mario Alberto Romero Rodriguez, a close associate of top cartel boss Servando Gomez, was detained early Saturday in the capital’s La Condesa district, the commission said in a statement.

The 48-year-old Romero Rodriguez, who is from Zamora, Michoacan, was identified as a leading opponent of the vigilantes in the Apatzingan.

He was involved in a June 2013 attack on federal law enforcement agents staying at a hotel in the city of Los Reyes that involved the use of fragmentation grenades.

Romero Rodriguez also staged attacks on vigilantes, organized roadblocks and was behind an ambush of army troops in Las Anonas, a town outside the city of Apatzingan that left a soldier dead and five others wounded, the commission said.

The Caballeros Templarios cartel, which deals in both synthetic and natural drugs, commits murders, stages kidnappings and runs extortion rackets that target business owners and transport companies in Michoacan.

Residents in several towns and cities formed vigilante groups in February 2013 to fight the Caballeros Templarios.

Published in Latino Daily News