Notorious leader of Mexican Gulf drug cartel that killed 2 US tourists captured at mall

A fugitive leader of the ruthless Mexican cartel blamed for killing two kidnapped American tourists last year has been captured in a high-end shopping mall.

José Alberto García Vilano, also known as “La Kena” and “Cyclone 19,” was arrested in the state of Nuevo Leon, public safety officials announced.

Mexico’s national arrest registry confirmed that García Vilano was taken into custody Thursday, reportedly by authorities acting on a tip.

Without mentioning García Vilano by name, the Navy department said marines had apprehended “one of the key leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Tamaulipas,” who was also “one of the main targets of the Drug Enforcement Administration.”

Miguel Treviño, the mayor the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza García — considered one of Mexico’s wealthiest towns — confirmed that García Vilano was collared at a local shopping center.

“Thanks to good intelligence, coordination and police monitoring, today an alleged criminal leader was arrested without a single shot,” Treviño wrote on X.

Prosecutors previously offered a reward equivalent to about $150,000 for the elusive kingpin’s arrest. It was not clear if that would be paid out over the arrest.

García Vilano allegedly headed one of the most powerful and violent factions of the Gulf cartel, known as “the Cyclones.”

The cartel has been tied to the deadly March 2023 kidnapping of four US citizens, who crossed the southern border into the crime-ridden city of Matamoros so that one of them, Latavia McGee, could undergo a tummy tuck surgery.

The friends from South Carolina got lost and ran into a gaggle of armed gang members, who opened fire on them and then forced them into the back of the truck, as seen in a harrowing surveillance video.

Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed in the attack; McGee and Eric Williams were rescued from a wooden storage shed days later.

A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed in the shootout, apparently by a stray bullet.

The Gulf drug cartel later turned over five of its members it said were to blame for the abduction to the police.

A letter claiming to be from “the Scorpions,” one of the cartel’s factions, condemned the violence, saying: “We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline.”

With Post wires