MEXICO HOLDS DRUG SOLDIER IN SLAYING

MEXICO CITY -- A soldier who was responsible for anti-drug efforts in
a north Mexican state has been arrested in connection with the
drug-motivated slaying of a federal police commander, prosecutors said.

Carmen Oralio Castro Aparicio had been the attorney general's
representative in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. Two
months ago, he was called back to Mexico City and placed under
detention at a military base while officials investigated the slaying
of Jaime Rajid Gutierrez Arreola, who oversaw anti-narcotics operations.

Ten other men, including several of Castro's top lieutenants, also
have been arrested or are sought in the case, said a statement
released Thursday by the federal attorney general's office.

The arrest appears to be another demonstration of the vulnerability of
Mexico's army and its law-enforcement agencies to corruption, as well
as of the will to battle against it.

When Gutierrez was found shot to death on a highway near the border
city of Reynosa in March, local investigators working under Castro at
first said he had died in a confrontation with drug
traffickers.

But officials in Mexico City grew suspicious of the probe and
conducted their own.

Witnesses and other evidence led them to believe Castro and other top
officials had been present when Gutierrez was murdered, apparently in
a dispute over money linked to the drug trade.