Nacho Coronel, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, killed in Army operation

In a major breakthrough, the Army announced that Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, one of the three top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, was killed during an operation by Army special forces in the exclusive San Javier district of Guadalajara. A force of around 150 soldiers surrounded the two houses where Coronel was believed to be with his bodyguards.  Power, telephone, and cellphone service was cut off in the neighborhood to aid the operation. The Army said the operation began in May, when they began tracking Coronel’s whereabouts. He was reportedly shot after he fired on the soldiers, killing one and wounding another. The Army also arrested Irán Francisco Quiñones, believed to be Coronel’s principal deputy, during the operation.  The Mexican government  had offered a Ps. 30 million reward and the U.S. government another US$5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.(Universal 7/29, Excelsior 7/29, Reforma 7/29)

As summarized by columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio,

[Coronel’s] death is the most important blow by the government of Felipe Calderón in its 44-month long war against narco-trafficking. … It is a blow to the heart of the Sinaloa cartel, to whose ruling triumvirate he belonged. He was, among the cartel’s leaders, … the most educated (with a college engineering degree) and kept a low profile, even though his silent violence was devastating. He was responsible for the entire cocaine and methamphetamine operation along the southern Pacific coast. … His unexpected death shakes up the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel, and profoundly damages the drug transit route that goes through Gómez Palacio and Torreón and ends in Ciudad Juárez. The loss is enormous for the cartel, but should give enormous satisfaction to the government of Mexico and, above all, to the government of the United States, which without having to dirty its hands has eliminated the principal exporter of methamphetemines to that country.(Eje Central 7/30)