Showing posts with label La Mano con Ojos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Mano con Ojos. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Could Mano con Ojos leader walk?

Did the authorities move too soon against Oscar Osvaldo Garcia Montoya, alleged leader of the "La mano con ojos" drug gang?
Mauricio Blancas Valerio, of the Central Investigations Agency, sounds doubtful of the feds' case. Garcia Montoya was arrested on Aug. 11 for alleged connections with 600 killings. He reportedly planned to kill the secretary of the State of Mexico, Alfredo Castillo. In addition to homicide, he is charged with narcotics distribution in the Tlalpan neighborhood of Mexico City. Now he sits in the maximum-security prison of Altiplano.
Yet Blancas Valerio said that the government only has "allegations, not direct proof to take penal action against him." He also said: "The simple fact that the gentleman responds to the nickname 'La mano con ojos' is not sufficient for the Public Minister to tell a judge, 'Look, this man participated because the 'cartulina' (message left near an assassination victim) said 'La mano con ojos,' and he responded to this nickname."

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

'Mano con Ojos' planned deadly strike

We now know quite a bit about the alleged crimes committed by Oscar Osvaldo Garcia, presumed leader of the criminal group "La Mano con Ojos" (The Hand With Eyes), who was captured last Thursday:
  • He planned to kill the secretary-general of justice for the state of Mexico, Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, even telling him that in a videotaped interview; and his syndicate dates back to 2010 and included 50 members working in about 60 stores, processing about two kilos of cocaine per week.
  • He identified himself as participating in the murder of five members of an Ajusco family on Oct. 5, 2010, and is accused of committing 300 killings total in northern and central Mexico and ordering 300 more executions;
  • His group's rivals included the "Cartel del Central" or "Cartel del Hongo," whom he fingered as the ones behind the kidnapping of former Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos.
It was in the video confrontation with Castillo Cervantes where "El Compayito" comes off as most fearsome, bobbing his head, smiling, and telling the secretary-general that he had planned to kill him.