Baja California's Attorney General says Tuesday's capture of Teodoro Garcia Simental will end the bloody drug gang turf war that's left about 1,000 people dead in Tijuana during the last two years.
Attorney General Rommel Moreno says Garcia Simental had become the number one enemy of Baja California. Mexican Federal police say in addition to committing hundreds of murders, Garcia Simental had recently stepped up threats to kill Moreno.
Mexican federal forces descended on Garcia Simental early Tuesday morning in the resort town of La Paz in southern Baja California.
In Tijuana Tuesday afternoon, 16-year-old Jorge, who was at a coffee shop, worried the arrest would spark more violence.
"The people who used to work for him and used to drug deal, what are they going to do now, you know? Are they gonna kidnap? Are they going to start assaulting people?"
Crime analysts in Tijuana are also concerned the fight to replace Garcia Simental could be deadly.
Attorney General Moreno says state and federal authorities are prepared.
Garcia Simental broke away from Tijuana's Arellano Felix cartel in 2008. He then waged war on the Arellano Felix cartel, with the support of the Sinaloa cartel, to try take over Tijuana's drug market and key drug smuggling routes to the United States.
