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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012. Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico. Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.

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Juarez coppers nab La Linea bad guy, 3 others -- UPDATED
2011-12-29
Posted by: badanov

For a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here La Polaka says the name of La Linea's leader is Bautista

By Chris Covert

Juarez municipal police agents arrested an individual Wednesday they say was the successor to Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, AKA "El Diego", leader of La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel.

Arturo Bautista, 31, AKA "El Mil Amores" was arrested Wednesday at a safe house following the shooting of an unidentified women, apparently the owner of a gym who failed to pay extortion money.

Three other La Linea operatives were arrested at another safe house near the intersection of calles Veronica and Cuchitlan in Felipe Angeles colony.

The operatives, David Velazquez Ramirez, 30; Jesus Ivan Hernandez, 24; andy Angel Jovan Terrazas, 32, provided police information leading to the location and subsequent arrest of Bautista.

At the Felipe Angels safe house police also seized two AK-47 rifles, one 9mm pistol, one .22 caliber pistol, 10 AK-47 weapons magazines and 650 rounds of ammunition.

Acosta Hernandez was one of the most dangerous criminals in Mexico, himself confessing to more than 1,500 murders during his reign as head of La Linea from 2007 to 2010. Among his victims were two US DEA agents murdered in early 2010,and a Subprocuradoria General or sub-attorney general of Chihuahua state who was gunned down in her SUV in Juarez in June, 2010.

Acosta Hernandez was also the mastermind behind the July 16th, 2010 car bombing in Juarez which killed four individuals including a Polica Federal agent.
To read the Rantburg report on the arrest of Acosta Hernandez, click here.
Acosta Hernandez's arrest marked the moment in both Chihuahua and Juarez when violent deaths declined in number by more than 50 percent. His capture came from a series of billboards posted around Chihuahua city.
And now his less violent successor has been removed a year later. Are the authorities getting inside the La Linea's training cycle?
They prolly got Sr. El Mil Amores before he could get his "sea legs".
A Policia Federal special weapons unit captured him after a brief gunfight.

All of Wednesday's arrestees were detained without incident.