Mexico Captures Knights Templar Cartel Leader

Mexican police captured Knights Templar drug cartel leader Servando Gomez on Friday, whose gang tormented western Michoacan state, smuggled drugs to the United States and illegally shipped iron ore to China.

One of Mexico's most wanted fugitives, the man nicknamed "La Tuta" was detained without a shot fired in Morelia, Michoacan's capital, a National Security Commission official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The 49-year-old former teacher was being transferred to Mexico City, where authorities will hold a press conference about the capture, which was the result "of several months of intelligence work by federal police," the official said.

Last year, police mounted a massive manhunt for Gomez in the mountains of Michoacan with help from a "rural defense" force comprised of former vigilantes who took up arms against the Knights Templar.

With his arrest, the authorities have now taken down the four top leaders of the cartel, dealing a huge blow to the criminal organization that once dominated the agricultural and mining state through murder, kidnappings and extortion.

The capture is a victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto amid falling approval ratings and public anger over his handling of violence in the neighboring state of Guerrero, where 43 students were allegedly killed by a gang in league with local police.

The government has neutralized some of the country's most wanted kingpins since Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, including the head of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was detained early last year after a 13-year manhunt.

Gomez is believed to have become the de facto boss after the group's founder, Nazario "El Chayo" Moreno, was killed by marines in March 2014. (Moreno had been wrongly declared dead by officials in 2010).

The cult-like gang's members were made to read a religion-tinged codebook. After Moreno's fake death, statues were built in his honor, wearing medieval armor and holding a sword.

The Knights Templar gang is a spinoff of another gang called La Familia Michoacana.

Unlike the more shadowy bosses of Mexico's numerous drug gangs, Gomez was a talkative former school teacher who appeared in online videos and television interviews.

He nurtured a Robin Hood image in his mountain hometown of Arteaga, where residents told AFP journalists during a visit in May 2014 that Gomez threw parties, sent gifts and gave out cash.

His mother owns a ranch there where roosters are bred for cockfights. An ornate family mausoleum, where his father is entombed, lies prominently at the cemetery's entrance. An ex-wife lives in a pink house.

"People are pleased because he helps them," Rosalba Barragan, the caretaker of the Gomez family ranch, told AFP at the time.

In videos and interviews, he always wore a baseball cap, jeans and a gun holstered to his belt.

Some of his videos ensnared local politicians caught sharing beers or casually chatting with him around a table. A former interim governor was arrested after he appeared in one tape.

Appearing in front of cows or surrounded by masked gunmen, he used videos to rail against his rivals, but claimed that his gang wanted "peace and calm" in Michoacan.

Gomez told Britain's Channel 4 News in a January 2014 interview, that being a teacher was "a very healthy and honest job, but due to my aspirations and my hyperactive nature, it didn't satisfy me."

At the height of its power, the cartel imported drug precursors from Asia to manufacture crystal meth before exporting the potent drug to the United States.

But the organization diversified its business, tapping iron ore mines and exporting the mineral to China via the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.

The military took over the port in 2013, shutting down iron ore shipments, which are due to resume this year after authorities tightened regulations.

Civilians formed vigilante forces in February 2013 to expel the cartel from their towns, accusing local police of either turning a blind eye or colluding with the gang.

The federal government backed the civilian militias and deputized them in May 2014. But infighting led to deadly clashes between two rival vigilante groups in December.

The government said the "rural force" would be disbanded, but that its members could apply to join a unified state command.