HUNDREDS OF MEXICAN COPS IN PAY OF CARTEL - REPORT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hundreds of federal, municipal and state
police may be in the pay of Mexico's ruthless Arellano Felix drug
cartel, whose chief lieutenant was arrested this week, a national
newspaper reported on Saturday.

Ismael ``El Mayel'' Higuera Guerrero, the cartel's No. 2 and reputed
head of operations, was believed to have paid out ''millions of
dollars to corrupt police and officials,'' said the Excelsior daily,
quoting unnamed federal investigators who have been interrogating the
drug capo.

Higuera Guerrero was detained on Wednesday as a result of an anonymous
tip from someone fed up with loud partying and pistol-firing at a
house near the town of Ensenada in Baja California state.

Mexican officials viewed the arrest as a major blow against the feared
Tijuana-based cartel. Washington praised the police effort and Mexican
anti-drugs czar Mariano Herran Salvatti said authorities were on the
way to ``dismantling'' one of the country's top two narcotics
smuggling organizations.

The cartel, allegedly headed by brothers Ramon Eduardo, Benjamin and
Javier Arellano Felix, is blamed for hundreds of executions over the
years in Tijuana, across the U.S.-Mexican border from San Diego. Ramon
Eduardo is on the U.S. FBI's ``Ten Most Wanted'' list.

Higuera Guerrero was in charge of drug smuggling, executions,
kidnappings and bribery, Mexican officials say.

Excelsior said its sources had told it dozens of retired and active
federal police officials were being investigated for allegedly
accepting bribes from Higuera Guerrero.

``The list of public servants who could have ties with the Tijuana
cartel could run into the hundreds if you take into account that there
are also state police, municipal police and Federal Highway Patrol
officers offering protection to the criminal organization,'' it added.

Mexico's police forces are notoriously corrupt, and police commanders
allegedly charge their junior officers ``quotas,'' or a percentage of
the bribes they expect them to take.

The billions of dollars Mexico's powerful drug smugglers earn through
selling cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines and heroin, mainly in the
United States, allows them to easily corrupt poorly paid police.

Security experts say widespread corruption among police, officials and
security forces have allowed cartels like the Arellano Felix clan to
operate for more than a decade with relative immunity from
prosecution.