One of Mexico’s most violent and feared drug cartel leaders was found dead on Monday morning.
Carlos Rosales Mendoza, who founded the twisted La Familia cartel in the 1980s, was killed and then disposed of near a tollbooth in the Mexican city of Morelia, The 52-year-old’s body was discovered along with three other men — all shot dead — in the western state of Michoacan, the AP reported.
Rosales Mendoza, also known as “El Tisico,” was on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) most wanted fugitives list, specifically in the Houston division, at the time of his death. He was most recently listed as armed and dangerous.
In 2004, Rosales Mendoza was the mastermind of a prison break that freed 25 inmates. He was apprehended and spent the next 10 years behind bars.
While he was imprisoned, his former associates evolved La Familia into the Knight’s Templar cartel, which quickly became the main focus of the Mexican government.
Upon his release in 2014, Rosales Mendoza had been attempting to rebuild his empire.
For the better part of three decades La Familia had strong alliances with the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, but in 2006 the group became its own establishment — in grand, gruesome fashion.
The members of the cartel attacked a nightclub in Uruapan and threw five severed heads on the dancefloor, along with a note that explained the group’s goals — it only kills those who “deserve to die,” according to The Independent.
La Familia had borderline “religious” ideals too. They believe they have a “divine right” to kill and dismember its enemies, and its members only traffic drugs — they do not consume them em dash, according to BBC.
Michoacan has dealt with heavy violence since 2013, when locals began trying to remove Knights Templar from the area.
Authorities are still looking for suspected connected to the four killings.
