Zeta Mastermind Of 272 Homicides Of Central And South America Immigrants Arrested

Salvador Alfonso Martínez Escobedo, aka, "El Comandante Ardilla"

31-year-old Zeta leader that ordered the killing of at least 272 Central and South American immigrants between 2010 and 2011 for refusing to join the Zeta's arrested in Nuevo Laredo.

By H. Nelson Goodson

October 8, 2012

Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico - On Monday, the Mexican Department of Navy (Semar) presented to the media, Salvador Alfonso Martínez Escobedo or Carlos García , 31, aka, "El Comandante Ardilla," the alleged leader of the Zeta's criminal organization in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila who ordered the killing of at least 272 immigrants from Central and South America for refusing to join the Zeta Cartel between 2010 and 2011, according to Semar. On August 2010, Escobedo masterminded the mass murder of 72 immigrants who were found discarded in shallow graves at a ranch near San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Another 200 immigrants were found in 2011 in mass graves in the same area.

Escobedo was arrested with five other men on Saturday around 7:00 p.m. after a gunfight between the Zetas and the Navy earlier in the day in Nuevo Laredo, which is across from the U.S. Bordertown of Laredo, Texas.

Escobedo had escaped in a vehicle, but Navy personnel caught up with him hours later in the day after he was spotted with a weapon in the vehicle. After brief chase, Navy personnel were able to block his path that ended with his surrender.

Semar attributed Escobedo with at least 50 homicides of his own, including the September 2010 murder of U.S. Citizen David Hartley in Falcon Lake and the homicide of Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, the Tamualipas Commander of the Ministry Police investigating Hartley's murder.

Ecobedo was also the mastermind in the escape of 151 prison inmates in Nuevo Laredo in December 2010 and the recent escape of another 132 inmates from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, which 15 of those inmates were his men.

The Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office has offered $15 million pesos ($1.1 million U.S.) for information leading to Ecobedo's arrest.

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