TOP STATE POLICE OFFICIALS ARRESTED FOR TIES TO MEXICAN DRUG ORGANIZATION

MEXICO CITY - Two top officials of the investigative police in central
Morelos state were arrested for protecting a branch of a major Mexican drug
organization, a federal authority announced Wednesday.

Raul Cortes, and Jose Agustin Montiel, operating director and general
director, respectively, are accused of protecting a cell of the Juarez
Cartel, so-named for the northern border city where the organization
conducts its business.

The two officers were part of a network of police officials dedicated to
providing protection for the cartel and worked with cartel leader Vicente
Carrillo, federal organized crime prosecutor Jose Vasconcelos told a news
conference.

The network's job included protecting airplanes arriving with cocaine from
Colombia. The investigation began in 2002.

The arrests of five other suspects were pending, Vasconcelos said, without
elaborating.