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Via Associated Press— A leader of the Zetas drug cartel who ordered a 2008 attack on a U.S. consulate has died at a maximum-security prison in central Mexico.

The federal security commission said Tuesday that Sigifredo Najera Talamantes died Monday of a heart attack.
Najera Talamantes was known by his nickname “El Canicon,” or the Big Marble, apparently for his stocky build.

He allegedly ordered the killing of six federal police and the torture and murder of nine soldiers in 2008. He also allegedly ordered an attack in which one man fired on the U.S. consulate in Monterrey and another threw a grenade that failed to explode. Nobody was hurt.

He was on the same cellblock in the Altiplano prison as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who escaped on July 11.

“At the murder rate now (in Tivoli Gardens) you can’t even walk in peace.
Of course I wish him was still there to continue keep the peace,” Annette Marshall testified during cross-examination by lead attorney for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Deborah Martin.

“We would sleep wid we door open. We wouldn’t wake up and hear say dem rob da man deh (and) the market would a full back wid market people,” Marshall added.
The long time Tivoli Gardens resident, however, insisted that she did not know how Coke was able to keep the peace in his west Kingston stronghold.
Marshall said when people in the community had a problem they would go to Coke and if he could assist he would.

“If he couldn’t assist he would send them to Denham Town (police station),” she testified.

Marshall also told the commission that police personnel at the Denham Town Police Station would send citizens to Coke to resolve issues.

Unlike other residents in her Tivoli Gardens community, Marshall openly acknowledged that she knew Coke.
“I am not going to say I didn’t know him, I know Dudus. I am not his friend, but I socialise with him, he is so nice,” Marshall testified before the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry.

The three-member commission is probing the conduct of the May 2010 police-military operations aimed at capturing Coke.

However, in most cases, residents in Coke’s Tivoli Gardens stronghold who have testified before the commission have maintained that they only knew of the convicted drug kingpin.

Marshall also recounted how Coke “straightened out” her son after he got into trouble at school and later refused to attend.

“Prezi (Coke’s nickname) heard about it and got him into Tivoli Gardens (high school) and on the football team and him (Coke) programme him (her son) and from that him don’t smoke or do nutten like that,” the long time Tivoli Gardens resident said.

Coke is now serving a 23-year sentence in the United States on drug and and gun charges.

Jamaica Observer