Morality Sags Again In Michoacan

Gabe sends this:

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican army captured a key figure in the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel that is sowing violence in western Mexico, a top officer announced Tuesday.

Saul Solis Solis, 49, a former police chief and one-time congressional candidate, was captured without incident Monday in the cartel's home state of Michoacan, Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas told reporters during a presentation of Solis.

Solis is considered one of the principal lieutenants in the Knights Templar, which split late last year from La Familia, a pseudo-religious drug gang known as a major trafficker of methamphetamine.

...Solis is a cousin of one of the Knight's Templar's main alleged leaders, Enrique Plancarte Solis. He served as director of public safety in the Michoacan town of Turicato from 2003-2005. He also ran for the federal congress in 2009 as a Green Party candidate, finishing fourth in his district with about 11,000 votes.

...President Felipe Calderon launched his attack on organized crime in 2006 in his home state of Michoacan, where much of the violence had been attributed to La Familia. Knights Templar became a splinter group after the leader of La Familia, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was killed in a shootout with federal police in December.

...Both groups claim to be devoted to God and to be fighting poverty and injustice under a strict code of conduct.

The Mexican Knights Templar drug gang is notable for its heavy emphasis on personal morality, religiosity and upstanding behavior. The arrest of this fellow is just another sign of decaying morality in the state of Michoacan.

Gabe replies:

Stupid question from me:

Personal morality, religiosity, and upstanding behavior from a drug gang?

Yes: that’s the source of their strength, actually. The strongest possible emphasis on personal morality, and the best bargain on meth south of the border.

No one said it had to make any sense...

Craig replies:

A criminal organization trying to legitimatize themselves by calling themselves the Knights Templar. LOL