Jailed Mexican drug kingpin dies of COVID-19

View of the exterior of an abandoned house painted by Los Zetas criminal group in China, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico, on November 22, 2019. (Photo by Julio Cesar AGUILAR / AFP)

The head of a Mexican drug cartel jailed after decapitating 12 people has died of COVID-19, official sources said on Monday.

Los Zetas leader Moises Escamilla May — known as Gordo May (Fatty May) — was serving 37 years in the western state of Jalisco for organized crime and illegally carrying weapons.

Among the offenses for which he was jailed was the beheading of 12 people in the southeastern state of Yucatan in 2008.

“He wasn’t suffering from any disease and started showing breathing symptoms on May 6,” said the health ministry at the end of last week, without identifying Escamilla.

A day later he was taken to hospital where he died.

A source at the public prosecutor’s office in Jalisco confirmed to AFP on Monday that it was Escamilla who had died.

The kingpin was arrested by federal police alongside eight associates in September 2008 in the southeastern seaside resort off Cancun, where he was based.

Many citizens’ groups have warned the government about the risks of the coronavirus spreading in often overcrowded Mexican prisons.

Mexico has recorded 35,000 cases of COVID-19 and almost 3,500 deaths.

In April, the Senate approved an amnesty for those convicted of less serious crimes, allowing them to be freed to help prevent the disease spreading.