Oct. 9 Photo Brief: Felix Baumgartner skydive postponed, Greek protesters greet German Chancellor, armed men steal body of top Zetas drug lord

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Felix Baumgartner skydive postponed, Greek protesters greet German Chancellor, armed men steal body of top Zetas drug lord and more in today’s daily brief.

Mexico says kills top Zetas drug lord but body snatched
Tim Gaynor and Lizbeth Diaz | Reuters
2:53 p.m. EDT, October 9, 2012

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico says it has killed the leader of the brutal Zetas drug gang, the most powerful kingpin to fall in a six-year battle against cartels, but in a surreal twist, his body was snatched from a funeral home by armed men.

Mexico’s Navy said on Tuesday that fingerprint tests had confirmed that Heriberto Lazcano was killed in a firefight in the northern state of Coahuila on Sunday afternoon.

Lazcano, alias “The Executioner,” had a $5 million bounty on his head and was the highest profile drug lord to be killed or captured in a military offensive launched when President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

However, in a scene straight out of a movie, an armed group snatched Lazcano’s body and that of another Zetas member from a funeral home in northern Mexico before dawn on Monday, just hours after they were killed.

“A masked, armed group overpowered the personnel, took the bodies and forced the owner of the funeral home to drive the get-away vehicle,” Homero Ramos, Coahuila’s state prosecutor, told a news conference on Tuesday.

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