Drug cartel lieutenant is captured in gunfight

Mexican troops have captured a drug cartel lieutenant who allegedly ordered an arson attack on a casino that killed 52 people in August.

Carlos Oliva Castillo, alias “The Frog,” supposed leader of the Zetas cartel, was detained in the northern city of Saltillo, said defence spokesman Ricardo Trevilla.

Zetas gunmen opened fire on security forces in an attempt to rescue Castillo, Col Trevilla added. The gunfire went on for several hours. Cartel gunmen in Mexico rarely attack soldiers in a bid to free arrested leaders.

Castillo allegedly led the gang on its home turf, in the northern Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas, as well as in the important northern battleground states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon. He ranked third in importance to the two top Zeta leaders, Heriberto “Lazca” Lazcano and Miguel Angel Trevino.

The stocky 37-year-old was later flown to Mexico City.

Trevilla said there were “several pieces of evidence” indicating that Castillo ordered a subordinate, Francisco Medina Mejia, to set fire to the Royale casino in the northern city of Monterrey on 25 August.

Investigators have identified or arrested more than a dozen suspects in the attack, which they say appears to have been triggered by the owners’ refusal to pay protection money to the Zetas.

Castillo was detained along with his girlfriend and his chief bodyguard at a safe house on Wednesday where soldiers found two rifles and pistols.

The Zetas were formed by deserters from an elite military unit in the 1990s and acted as the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel in Tamaulipas before the two gangs split in 2010.