Arnoldo Rueda Medina
Arnoldo Rueda Medina | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 December 1969or27 December 1969[1] |
| Other names | La Minsa |
| Occupation | La Familia Michoacanaleader |
| Criminal status | In prison (Penal del Altiplano) |
| Criminal charge | Organized crime,drug trafficking |
Arnoldo Rueda Medina(born 15 December 1969) is a former Mexicandrug lordand high-ranking leader ofLa Familia Michoacana,a drug trafficking organization which is based inMichoacán,Mexico.[2][3]
Rueda Medina was allegedly in charge of operations under La Familia leadersNazario Moreno GonzálezandJosé de Jesús Méndez Vargas,who are both on Mexico's most-wanted list of drug suspects.[4]
Criminal career[edit]
Rueda Medina was born on 15 December 1969 inParácuaro,[1]a municipality of the state ofMichoacán,[5]and first worked as a tortilla seller before deciding to start his criminal career by stealing automobiles in the year 2000.[6]In 2004, he became theLa Familia Michoacana's hitmen lieutenant responsible for tracking down cartel rivals and ordering gunmen to kill members of theMilenio Cartel,which had an alliance with theSinaloa Cartel.[7]
He reportedly started working for the cartel in 2000, when the drug lordsCarlos Rosales Mendoza,José de Jesús Méndez Vargas,andNazario Moreno Gonzálezwere fighting against the Valencia brothers of the Milenio organization for the control of the smuggling routes in western Mexico.[7]During the mid-2000s, Rosales Mendoza headed the cartel and aligned with theGulf CartelandLos Zetasto fight the Milenio Cartel. But after the arrests of Rosales Mendoza and of the Gulf Cartel leaderOsiel Cárdenas Guillén,Rueda Medina's group broke relations with Los Zetas along with Méndez Vargas and Moreno González. By 2006, he was in charge of coordinating the cartel's narcotics fabrication and smuggling operations.[7]He was also responsible for assigning regional leaders of the cartel, contacting international drug suppliers, and infiltrating several police forces where La Familia Michoacana held a stronghold.[4]
Arrest[edit]
After six months of police intelligence, Rueda Medina was arrested on 11 July 2009 by elements of theMexican Federal Policewhile he was arriving at his residence in the capital city ofMorelia,Michoacán.[8][9]
Minutes later, a group of more than two dozen gunmen tossed fragmentation grenades and opened fire on the federal police offices where Rueda Medina was being held.[10]Rueda Medina was then taken to Mexico City by dozens of policemen and soldiers. A few hours after Rueda's arrest, convoys of heavily armed gunmen ambushed federal forces across the western state of Michoacán. The gunmen tossedhand grenadesand opened fire on police stations and at the hotel installations where the officers slept in six major Michoacan cities. There were also attacks in the states of Guerrero and Guanajuato.[10]Five federal officers and two soldiers were killed that day, with ten federal policemen wounded by the reprisals.[2]
Two days later, on 13 July, La Familia gunmen continued the retaliation with an ambush to a police bus, killing 12 federal agents.[11][12]The 11 men and one woman had been kidnapped, tortured, and killed while off-duty as a retaliation attack for the arrest of Rueda Medina.[13]The killing of the agents, whose bodies were found along with a warning note, showed that La Familia Michoacana was eager to directly attack the Federal government of Mexico.[14]
Rueda has been convicted of multiple crimes and is being held atPenal del Altiplano,a maximum security prison.[15]
Kingpin Act sanction[edit]
On 25 February 2010, theUnited States Department of the Treasurysanctioned Rueda Medina under theForeign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act(sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act" ), for his involvement in drug trafficking along with twenty-one other international criminals and ten foreign entities.[16]The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S.[17]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^abc"RUEDA MEDINA, Jose Arnoldo".OpenSanctions.28 January 2023.
- ^ab"Gunmen launch deadly raids in central Mexico".NBC News.The Associated Press.11 July 2009.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^"La Familia Michoacana – Leadership Chart"(PDF).United States Department of the Treasury.15 April 2009. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 10 March 2010.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^ab"El Minsa, brazo operativo de La Familia".Proceso(in Spanish). 13 July 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 16 November 2012.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Money and Finance: Treasury: Treasury, PT. 500-End, Revised as of July 1, 2010.United States Government Printing Office.28 September 2010. p. 764.ISBN978-0160860034.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Riva Palacio, Raymundo (19 July 2009)."La Minsa: La voluntad de su Dios hizo que sobreviviera Rueda Medina"(PDF).Zócalo Saltillo(in Spanish).Archived(PDF)from the original on 8 January 2010.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^abc"Arnoldo Rueda 'La Minsa', de robar carros a capo del narco".Terra Networks(in Spanish). 13 July 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 16 November 2012.Retrieved5 January2017.
- ^Malkin, Elizabeth (12 July 2009)."Mexico Posts Are Blitzed After Arrest in Drug War".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on 30 January 2013.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^"Oleada de ataques en México".El Mundo(in Spanish). 12 July 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 10 March 2014.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^abNájar, Alberto (12 July 2009)."Ofensiva narco en México".BBC Mundo(in Spanish).Archivedfrom the original on 16 November 2012.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^"Mexican police, soldiers killed in multicity attacks by drug gang".CNN.Time Warner Company.12 July 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 22 October 2012.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Sosa Cabios, Andrea (14 July 2009)."Bloody revenge in Mexico's drug war".Monsters and Critics.Archivedfrom the original on 16 November 2012.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Ellingwood, Ken (15 July 2009)."12 slain in Mexico were federal police officers".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on 17 February 2011.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Leonard, Tom (19 July 2009)."Mexican police officers arrested over murder of federal agents".The Daily Telegraph.Archivedfrom the original on 16 March 2014.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^Gómez, Francisco (4 September 2009)."Trasladan a La Minsa al penal del Altiplano".El Universal(in Spanish).Archivedfrom the original on 16 November 2012.Retrieved16 November2012.
- ^"DESIGNATIONS PURSUANT TO THE FOREIGN NARCOTICS KINGPIN DESIGNATION ACT"(PDF).United States Department of the Treasury.15 May 2014. p. 10. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 14 May 2013.Retrieved28 May2014.
- ^"An overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act"(PDF).United States Department of the Treasury.2009. p. 1. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 28 May 2014.Retrieved28 May2014.