It should be noted that, at all times, Beltran Leyva, 56 years old, received the required medical care and hospital staff as well as the federal center, clinical exhausted all resources at its disposal to restore it.
Hector had been approved for extradition to the U.S., but in 2017 he won an appeal against it.
Hector assumed leadership of the Beltran-Leyva drug trafficking organization (BLO) after his brother Arturo was killed during a shoot-out with police in 2009. Another brother named Carlos was arrested in 2010. Hector is also the brother of Alfredo Beltran-Levya (arrested in 2008, extradited in 2014, and sentenced to life in prison on a guilty plea in 2016.
Alfredo, whose case is on appeal, was represented by two of the lawyers now representing El Chapo).
The Beltran Leyva brothers and El Chapo are related through marriage. Alfredo Beltran-Leyva is married to Patricia Guzman-Nunez who is El Chapo's niece. Her father was El Chapo's half-brother, Ernesto Guzman- Hildago. The Beltran-Leyvas believe El Chapo had him killed in 2015.
The Beltran-Leyva brothers and El Chapo all grew up in Badiraguato, Sinaloa. El Chapo was from the village of La Tuna and the Beltran Leyvas were from the nearby La Palma. The Beltran Leyva brothers were part of the Sinaloa Federation/Cartel until Alfredo's arrest in 2008 when they became convinced El Chapo intentionally leaked his location. In response, the Beltran-Levyas killed El Chapo's son Edgar. There was no going back after that, and it resulted in a war between the two that cost thousands of lives and persists to the present.
Even Alfredo Beltran-Levya's son, Alfredo Beltran-Guzman ("El Mochomito") has been at war with El Chapo and his sons, and is now in jail in Mexico.
Hector Beltran-Leyva was charged with El Chapo and El Mayo (Ismael Zambada-Garcia(and El Mayo's brother "El Rey", Jesus Zambada-Garcia) in the 2009 case now being tried in Brooklyn. Here is the 2009 Indictment, and here is the 2015 Superseding Indictment (charging only Hector). Here is Hector's indictment in the District of Colombia.)
The Beltran-Leyva group has been weakening for a long time. Authorities believe Fausto Isidro Meza-Flores("El Chapo Isidro") has been in charge since Hector's arrest. The U.S. has a $5 million reward out for him. An Indictment in the District of Columbia was returned against him in 2012. Here is the Government's chart of his major operators in 2013. El Chapo Isidro won protection from extradition in the Mexican courts, although it seems to be under appeal.
Even Hector's wife is in prison. Clara Laborin Archuleta was arrested in 2016 after taking over cartel operations and trying to reassert control in the Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco.
While Hector was only 56, he didn't look very healthy when they arrested him in 2014. I doubt anyone's health improves at a maximum security prison like Altiplano.
