Guatemalan drug lord responsible for the homicides of eight police officers, a police inspector and more than 30 other murders, according to authorities.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 5, 2013
Guatemala City, Guatemala - On Friday afternoon, Eduardo Francisco Villatoro Cano aka, "Guayo Cano," a Guatemalan national and one of the most wanted drug lords in the country was extradited nearly 12 hours after being taken into custody in Mexico. Villatoro Cano had crossed illegally into Mexico about 13 days ago and had checked into a hospital at Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas for liposuction operation to change his physical appearance.
A joint force of the mexican military, Marines, Chiapas State Police and other law enforcement agencies raided the hospital after confirming Villatoro Cano was admitted and had surgery.
Edgar Waldiny Herrera Villatoro, aka, "El Gualas or Wallace" was also taken into custody with Villatoro Cano, according to Mauricio Bonilla López, Minister of Government during a press conference at a Guatemalan Air Force base in zone 3.
Villatoro Cano will remain in a secure military hospital to monitor his recovery from the liposuction surgery in Mexico.
Guatemalan authorities were instrumental in providing intelligence information to mexican authorities that Villatoro Cano was in Chiapas.
Villatoro Cano allegedly was the mastermind of a massive execution operation that resulted in nine deaths on June 13. About 15 gunmen from Villatoro Cano's criminal organization raided a police station in Salcajá, Quetzaltenango in Guatemala and murdered eight police officers and kidnapped an inspector. The murdered officers were identified as Amílcar Bosbeli Castillo De León, Héctor Tun Busel, Estuardo Gabriel López Wieles, Juan García Chum, Rodolfo Herrera Solís, Omar Estuardo Tomás Mérida, Rigoberto Sales Hernández, Selvin Roderico Fuentes Miranda and Police Inspector César Augusto García Cortez. Cortez was taken alive by his captors and his dismembered body was later found at the Valparaíso River in La Democracia, Huehuetenango. It is believed that Villatoro Cano participated in Cortez' dismemberment, according to authorities.
Guatemalan media reports indicated that the nine homicides were attributed to a drug dispute deal.
Villatoro Cano is also accused of ordering more than 30 other homicides.
