Galindo Mellado Cruz, bettern known as "Z-9" or "El Mellado", one of the founding members of the drug cartel "Los Zetas", one of Mexico's most violent criminal organizations, was brought down by units of the Mexican Army in the state of Tamaulipas, the Mexican Government reported on Monday.
Second in the command of the ultra violent group of "Los Zetas" for a long time, 41-year-old Mellado died during a firefight on Friday, May 9, when units of the Army and state police located him in a residence in the border city of Reynosa, in the state of Tamaulipas, according to Fox News.
Monte Alejandro Rubido García, Mexico's National Security Commissioner, confirmed on Monday in a press conference that forensic experts confirmed the identity of Galindo Mellado as one of the people killed last Friday during a clash with Federal forces.
"Federal forces neutralized Galindo Mellado Cruz, who was the second in command of a criminal group operating in that area of the border and at the same time, was a founding member of another criminal group in the area," detailed Commissioner Rubido, reported Mexican newspaper Excélsior.
The Commissioner revealed that forensic investigators identified the body of Mellado by comparing his fingerprints and physical characteristics to those in a database, according to Fox.
A former member of the Mexican Army, Mellado joined the Gulf cartel in the early nineties as one of the first members of one of the cartel's new cells; however, shortly after it became an independent group known for its extreme violence, according to the Daily Mail.
Know as "Los Zetas", the new cartel recruited former federal policemen and soldiers and quickly gained notoriety thanks to its military tactics and its brutality, a characteristic which planted terror in the people of northern Mexico and southern Texas.
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