Carlos Beltrán Leyva (born 1969) is a Mexican incarcerated

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

with the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. The cartel was created by the four Beltrán Leyva brothers: Carlos, Héctor,

Alfredo Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon name Alfred (name), Alfred and a common Italian language, Italian, Galician language, Galician, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. Given name Artists a ...

and

Arturo Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People * Arturo Alessandri (1868–1950), Chilean politician and president * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, bo ...

. Born in the Sinaloan countryside in the late 1960s, Carlos and his brothers worked closely with Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán, the leader of the

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...

, during decades of smuggling. The organization, run mainly by Arturo and Héctor, formed as a splinter group of the powerful

, which was led by Joaquín Guzmán Loera. After Alfredo was arrested, the Beltrán-Leyva brothers blamed Guzmán Loera and retaliated by forming the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and killing one of the Sinaloa cartel chief's sons in a grenade attack on a

Culiacán Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is a city in northwestern Mexico, the capital and largest city of both Culiacán Municipality and the state of Sinaloa. The city was founded on 29 September 1531 by the Spanish conquistadors Lázaro de ...

shopping center. This sparked a war between the

and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which allied itself with the

Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel ( , or ''Golfos'') is a criminal syndicate, Drug cartel, drug trafficking organization, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which is perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in Mexico. It is currently bas ...

Warrant and arrest

Little is known about Carlos' role in the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and reports have differed on the importance of his position within the organization. A warrant had been out for his arrest since 2008. However, a 2008 list of Mexico's 37 top drug traffickers, for which the government offered rewards of as much as $2 million, did not include his name. George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert at The College of William & Mary, described Carlos as "the lowest profile of the brothers". Carlos Beltrán Leyva was arrested in Culiacán on December 30, 2009, after he was stopped while driving with a forged license. He was found to be in possession of a pistol, a rifle, ammunition and cocaine, and was using the fake name Carlos Gámez Orpineda. The arrest came after a citizen tipped authorities to the presence of an armed man in Culiacán. The arrest was considered another in a string of blows against the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which had suffered from the death of Arturo Beltrán Leyva during a gun battle with police two weeks earlier. Carlos had not been mentioned by analysts as a possible successor to Arturo, and the fact that he was not accompanied by bodyguards at the time of his arrest may suggest his role in the cartel was limited. Nevertheless, media reports suggested the arrest of Carlos could set the stage for a bruising battle for control of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. The arrest was considered a victory in

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician and lawyer who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 and 2004. ...

Mexican Drug War The Mexican drug war is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing Asymmetric warfare, asymmetric armed conflict between the Federal government of Mexico, Mexican government and various Drug cartel#Mexico, drug trafficking syndicates. When the ...

, and a signal that the government would not back down in the face of recent reprisals from the death of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, including the murder of family members of Melquisedec Angulo Córdova, a marine killed during the gun battle that killed Arturo Beltrán Leyva.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beltran Leyva, Carlos People from Culiacán People from Sinaloa Beltrán Leyva family Mexican drug traffickers Mexican prisoners and detainees Mexican people convicted of money laundering Living people 1969 births