Zeta zeroed

FOR a government that has promised to reduce violent crime, there can have been little better news than the arrest of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales on July 15th. The head of the Zetas, a drug, kidnapping and extortion gang so notorious many Mexicans only whisper its name in public, Mr Treviño is allegedly responsible for orchestrating some of the country’s most sickening acts of violence in recent years. They include many beheadings, and the massacre of 265 migrants in 2010-11.

Yet the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s president since last December, is keen to play down drug-related violence. It reacted to its first toppling of a suspected kingpin in a markedly different way from its predecessor. Mr Treviño was not paraded in front of the press. There was little drama: he was detained with two alleged accomplices by a navy helicopter at 3.45am just south of the United States border and not a shot was fired.