By Robert Beckhusen
Enrique Aurelio Elizondo Flores, variously called “El Arabe” (“The Arab”) or “The Raven,” has confessed to heading a cell of assassins responsible for the deaths of at least 75 people, according to the state investigative agency of Nuevo Leon and reports which appeared first in the Mexican media. If the body count is accurate, it might place Elizondo as one of the most horrifically efficient murderers of all time. But this isn’t just a random serial killer. Elizondo is a member of the notorious Los Zetas cartel.
According to media reports, Elizondo and his crew of gunmen pulled passengers from buses traveling to the Texas border and the Nuevo Leon towns of Cerralvo, Paras, Agualeguas and General Trevino. They were likely hunting for members of the rival Cartel de Golfo, or Gulf Cartel. Or indiscriminately killing anyone who fit the profile of a suspected enemy. Elizondo was known, it seems, “for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims,” said Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene. Elizondo is also reported to be responsible for the deaths of six cops and “a married couple, and their child.”
At least 50 people died from one bus in Cerralvo, and at least 42 other bus passengers on two buses were also reportedly killed by the Zetas in the area in early 2011. It’s entirely possible that these killings were by Elizondo’s cell, as well.
Elizondo is hardly the first accused murderer to be captured in Mexico’s drug war. And yet, the violence there has continued to spiral further and further out of control. Nowhere is this more true than in Mexico’s northeastern states like Nuevo Leon, which have fallen further under the sway of the violent Zetas.
But, if the allegations against Elizondo are true, none of these other criminals had his taste for gore. So there’s at least one hope that the removal of this one player really can change Mexico’s deadly game, if only a bit.
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