IN DRUG INQUIRY, MEXICO ARRESTS ANOTHER TOP POLICE OFFICIAL

MEXICO CITY - A top police official who worked as Mexico's main
liaison with Interpol was placed under house arrest as part of an
investigation into leaks of information to drug cartels, prosecutors
said Tuesday.

The arrest of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, who served as director for
international police affairs and Interpol at the Federal
Investigative Agency, was the latest blow to Mexico's police forces,
which have had a number of top officials linked to the nation's
powerful and violent drug gangs. The investigation that swept up Mr.
Gutierrez Vargas also resulted in the detention of several other
federal police officials in recent weeks on suspicion of leaking
information to traffickers.

Officials at the Interpol General Secretariat, based in Lyon, France,
were not available for comment on Tuesday.

An Interpol Web site said that national bureaus like Mexico's, which
Mr. Gutierrez Vargas headed, were connected to the agency's
communications network, "which enables them to share crucial
information on criminals and criminal activities."

Mexican prosecutors previously announced that Rodolfo de la Guardia
Garcia, the No. 2 official at the Federal Investigative Agency from
2003 to 2005, was placed under house arrest for 40 days.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that he had leaked
information to the Sinaloa drug-smuggling cartel in return for
monthly payments.

Mr. de la Guardia was elected to Interpol's executive committee in
2002 but was removed from that post by the Mexican government in
2004, the Interpol General Secretariat said in a statement at the time.

The detentions of Mr. Gutierrez Vargas and Mr. de la Guardia are part
of the government's Operation Clean House, which is aimed at weeding
out corruption that came to light after the January arrest of Alfredo
Beltran Leyva, a reputed lieutenant of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Four officials of the Public Safety Department, including a former
federal police commissioner, Gerardo Garay, were placed under house
arrest earlier, though allegations against them have not been disclosed.

In recent weeks, the Sinaloa cartel has also been linked to four
Mexican military officers and one soldier, as well as five officials
in the organized-crime unit of the attorney general's office, which
oversees the agency that employed Mr. de la Guardia.

On Tuesday, prosecutors also announced the detention of a crusading
former federal police official for questioning on possible links to
organized crime.

The attorney general's office said a former regional police
coordinator, Javier Herrera, had been detained for 48 hours. No
formal charges have been filed.

He had openly accused top federal police officials of incompetence
and mismanagement and has since been dismissed from his post.