The body of Carlos Rosales Mendoza, better known as "El Tísico" and "El Carlitos," was found Monday, along with the bodies of three other men. The founder of one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels, La Familia Michoacana, Rosales Mendoza was on the "most wanted" list of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for federal drug violations.
The four bodies were found by a highway in western Mexico, reported ABC News. They were riddled with bullets, and there is evidence that they had been severely tortured before being shot dead, according to the Daily Mail. It is unclear who may be responsible for killing the drug lord.
The other three men have yet to be identified.
Rosales Mendoza, 53, was released from a Mexican federal prison in May 2014, having served 10 years for organized crime charges. He got involved with drug trafficking in the 1980s, moving up the ranks in local cartels before becoming one of the founders of La Familia in 2000, explained the BBC. In 2004, he organized an armed attack on a maximum security prison, according to the BBC. His alliance succeeded in freeing 25 inmates, but Rosales Mendoza himself was arrested on suspicion of masterminding the jailbreak plot, as the BBC reported.
Before Rosales Mendoza's arrest, La Familia controlled more than 50 methamphetamine labs throughout Mexico, in addition to its involvement in activities such as extortion and kidnapping. Claiming to defend family and religious values, the La Familia cartel holds a reputation for extreme violence. Its members claim a divine right to kill and dismember enemies, according to TeleSUR.
The state of Michoacan has experienced intensifying drug violence as well as an armed uprising, starting in 2013, involving vigilante groups and former members of Rosales Mendoza's own cartel.
