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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A leader of the Zetas drug cartel who ordered a 2008 attack on a U.S. consulate has died at a maximum-security prison in central Mexico.
The federal security commission said Tuesday that Sigifredo Najera Talamantes died Monday of a heart attack.
Najera Talamantes was known by his nickname "El Canicon," or the Big Marble, apparently for his stocky build.
He allegedly ordered the killing of six federal police and the torture and murder of nine soldiers in 2008. He also allegedly ordered an attack in which one man fired on the U.S. consulate in Monterrey and another threw a grenade that failed to explode. Nobody was hurt.
He was on the same cellblock in the Altiplano prison as Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped on July 11.
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