Mexico Says 'The Craziest' Drug Lord Killed in Shootout

The man who once announced his gang's arrival on the Mexican drug scene by rolling five severed heads into a nightclub has been killed during two days of shootouts between police and gang members, reports the AP. The death of Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, variously dubbed "The Doctor" and "The Craziest One," hands President Felipe Calderon a significant victory in his home state of Michoacan, where he began his war on gangs.

Moreno indoctrinated his gangbangers with a pseudo-Christian ideology, reports Reuters, quoting the Bible and self-help slogans on the one hand, while unleashing waves of murder, meth, and cocaine with the other. His La Familia cartel rose from relative obscurity five years ago to become one of the main players in Mexico's national drug crisis. "They believe they are doing God's work, and pass out Bibles and money to the poor," says a DEA profile of the cartel.
(More Mexico drug war stories.)