Mexican police arrested the suspected leader of a brutal drug gang called "The Hand with Eyes" and he has confessed to helping carry out or ordering more than 600 murders, authorities said Thursday.
Oscar Osvaldo Garcia Montoya, 36, was arrested in an overnight raid on a presumed safe house on the outskirts of Mexico City, State of Mexico Attorney General Alfredo Castillo said at a news conference.
"The Hand with Eyes" is one of the groups blamed for bringing the drug violence typical of northern Mexico to Mexico City and its surrounding areas.
The organization is known for extreme violence, including decapitations. Many of its victims have been drug dealers and rivals killed as the group fought for control of drug sales in Mexico state, an area that includes many of the poor suburbs ringing the capital.
The gang spread terror by dumping severed heads in the streets of towns surrounding Mexico City.
Castillo said Garcia is a deserter from the Mexican marines who worked as a bodyguard for major cartel figures including Edgar Valdez, aka "La Barbie," a top assassin for the Beltran Leyva cartel until he was arrested in 2010.
With the capture or death of Valdez and most of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva cartel, Garcia split off and formed his own group.
Garcia is known as "El Compayito" after a popular Mexican hand-puppet character created by an entertainer who dresses up his hand and puts eyes on it. The crime gang apparently took its name from the puppet's nickname.
"In the first declarations that have been gathered, El Compayito and-or 'The Hand with Eyes,' has acknowledged having participated personally in 300 murders and ordering another 300," Castillo said.
The bushy-haired Garcia gazed coolly when he was paraded before journalists Thursday, held firmly by two masked police officers.
Castillo said Garcia had received some training from members of the Guatemalan special forces called the "Kaibiles," who are known for massacres during the Guatemalan civil war that ended in the 1990s. Some of them are believed to have been hired by Mexican drug cartels.
Brutal battle
More than 42,000 people have been killed in raging drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and sent the military to crush cartels.
The crackdown has led to the spin off of numerous smaller cartels, which are often characterized by their extreme violence as they fight to carve out turf.
News reports said The Hand with Eyes gang had been locked in a brutal battle with the Central Cartel to control territory in and around Mexico City.