Columna Armada Auto-Defensa Founder “El Profe" Octavio Leal Moncada Arrested in Nuevo Leon

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Octavio Leal Moncada, known by the aliases "El Profe" and "El Tarzán," was arrested this Sunday in Santiago, Nuevo Leon. His arrest led to protests and blockades on the Victoria-Monterrey Highway in Hidalgo.

Octavio Leal Moncada is an 83-year old social and political leader from Tamaulipas, known mainly for founding and leading the Columna Armada Pedro J. Méndez, an organization with a presence in the central region of the state, especially in Hidalgo, Mainero, Villagrán and San Carlos.

The group emerged as a social and peasant movement that has promoted causes related to security, regional development, and the defense of rural communities. Over time, it also gained political influence in that area of ​​the state.

However, Moncada himself admitted in a 2023 interview that the group was being armed by the Gulf Cartel in their fight against Los Zetas' expansion in the area.

At various times, state and federal authorities have pointed to members of the organization for alleged links to criminal activities. The group and its leaders have rejected these accusations and maintained that it is a social movement.

Residents in Tamaulipas have reported that they have suffered threats, attacks and land theft by the armed group led by Octavio Leal Moncada.

State and federal authorities had identified Octavio Leal Moncada as a leader of a Gulf Cartel cell posing an auto-defense group.

Pedro J. Méndez Columna Armada

Leal Moncada is known as the founder of the “Pedro J. Méndez” Armed Column, a self-defense group that emerged in 2010. Its founding took place during the height of the war between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel between 2010 and 2012, in which they fought for territory following Los Zetas split from being the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel..

The violence in the state of Tamaulipas, primarily at the hands of Los Zetas, led to the formation of the group in March 2010, based in Hidalgo. It was initially known as Columna Cívica, which, according to its leaders, was founded to combat the criminal gangs that extorted and murdered in the region.

Their operations extended to other municipalities, such as Villagrán, Mainero, San Carlos, Güémez, Padilla, and San Nicolás. After four years, the group began to participate in the political arena, working alongside the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Political Influence

However, it was from 2016 onwards that they supported the then candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, which allowed them to bring people from their group to run for local councils and deputies.

During the six-year term of former Tamaulipas governor Egidio Torre (2011-2016), the head of Social Communication for the state government, Guillermo Martínez, denied the existence of self-defense groups in the state.

At the end of 2021, the group broke with PAN, accusing Cabeza de Vaca of betraying their agreements, so Leal Moncada announced that they would lay down their arms to focus on civic work, as well as their support for then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The group put its support behind the Morena candidate, Américo Villarreal, through assemblies in which Leal Moncada invited citizens to vote for him.

Américo Villarreal, the Governor of Tamaulipas, today denied that he is under investigation in either Mexico or the United States after a report published on June 27, 2026 by The New York Times claimed otherwise.

On the day after his arrest, protests took place and highways into the area were being blocked. Similar blockades took place following a failed arrest attempt back in 2022.

Gulf Cartel Links

In 2021, the then Attorney General's Office of Tamaulipas reported that there was an arrest warrant out for him. In response, Moncada filed several legal Amparos to avoid his arrest. On several occasions, claimed to be a victim of political persecution, while state authorities maintained that there were open investigations against him.

In 2022, he had been detained for the homicide of two people. He has been accused of ordering the assassination of former Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia in 2010 and Julio Cesar Leal Garcia in 2015. He was also accused of a car bomb targeting then Secretary of Security Rafael Lomelí Martínez in 2012.

When announcing the July 2022 arrest of Octavio Leal Moncada at a morning press conference of then-President López Obrador, the head of the Secretariat of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, reported that the Leal Moncada was linked to the Gulf Cartel.

In early November 2022, the Tamaulipas Public Security Secretariat transferred Leal Moncada to a hospital in Ciudad Victoria. Weeks later, a magistrate of the Victoria Regional Court revoked the formal arrest order that a state judge had issued on July 12, 2022.

Octavio Leal Moncada gave an interview to Elefante Blanco in 2023, in which he admitted that the weapons they used to defend themselves against Los Zetas were bought from the Gulf Cartel.

Sources Borderland Beat, Proceso, Infobae