Top Mexican Drug Boss Killed in Raid

Arturo Beltrán Leyva died in shootout with 200 sailors
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2009 6:49 AM CST
Top Mexican Drug Boss Killed in Raid
Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed Mexican drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.   (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

One of Mexico's most powerful drug bosses has been killed in an "intense" firefight, giving a much-needed boost to President Felipe Calderón's 3-year war on drug traffickers. Arturo Beltrán Leyva died yesterday in a two-hour shootout with 200 sailors at an upscale condominium complex in Cuernavaca, said the Mexican Navy.

Killing the man known as the "Boss of Bosses" could do much to shift the landscape of the bloody war: Many of the deaths are the result of a turf war between Beltrán Leyva and kingpin Joaquín "Shorty" Guzmán, former allies whose battle over drug trafficking routes has turned Juarez into one of the world's deadliest cities, reports the Wall Street Journal. (More Arturo Beltran Leyva stories.)

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