Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, the top leader of La Familia drug cartel known as “The Monkey,” was arrested Tuesday at a highway checkpoint in the central state of Aguascaliente.

Mendez led a group of La Familia, the brutal and sometimes cult-lik

e network that authorities say specializes in producing and shipping methamphetamine to the United States.

“This capture destroys the remaining leadership structure of this criminal organization,” Alejandro Poire said according to CNN.

Poire described Mendez as La Familia’s most essential operations chief and blamed him for a lengthy list of crimes, including murder, kidnapping, extortion and grenade attacks on civilians — attacks that the government had before attributed to another organization, the Zetas.

Although Poire insists the arrest of Mendez will majorly weaken the drug trafficking organization, Mexico’s security has worsened and the number of violent murders has increased as the drug wars rage.

La Familia has morphed into a number of heavily armed factions that are still active and are moving tons of cocaine and marijuana, along with meth, into U.S. markets, authorities say.

Despite reassuring press conferences and several high-ranking cartel leaders’ arrests, the drug violence in Mexico continues relentlessly.

Some are afraid Mendez’s arrest will prompt more violence and retaliation from the La Familia cartel and continue to increase the violence.

The fighting has already caused thousands of residents to flee in fear or be displaced, families have fled, and schools and businesses have been forced to shut down.

Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a war on drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

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