Héctor Beltrán Leyva
, a Mexican drug lord whose cartel earned a reputation as one of the country’s most vengeful and ruthless cartels , died on Sunday in hospital, of cardiac arrest after being transferred from prison after complaining of chest pain, Mexican authorities said.
Beltran Leyva
had been incarcerated since March 2, 2016, at the Federal Prison Number 1, a maximum security facility, where he was facing federal prosecution for various crimes , Mexico's Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Known as “the H,” according to the statement, Beltrán Leyva ’s capture in 2014, near a town where he had posed as an art and real estate dealer, was seen as a major victory for Mexican authorities in their decade-long war against drug gangs.
Beltran Leyva
's arrest was a serious blow to their cartel , which became infamous for the bloody turf war waged with their former ally, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Authorities said Beltrán Leyva , 56, was transferred to hospital minutes after security officers noticed he had severe pain in his chest that did not respond to first aid from prison doctors .
The statement noted that “ Beltrán Leyva ...received the medical attention he required and that the hospital staff, as well as the federal center, exhausted all the clinical resources at its disposal.”
