POLICE GO AFTER DRUG GANGS

Mexican Police Said They Arrested a Key Leader of the Violent Gulf Cartel

MEXICO CITY -- A man described as a key leader of the violent Gulf
Cartel has been arrested as part of a widening crackdown on drug
trafficking in northeast Mexico, federal authorities announced Tuesday.

The announcement of the bust in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders
the United States, came the day after Mexican soldiers detained more
than 100 local police officers in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon
for questioning about suspected ties to drug traffickers.

The operations are part of a series of efforts pushed by President
Felipe Calderon aimed at stemming the country's increasingly violent
war between drug cartels.

The bloodshed continues: Monday alone, nearly two dozen bodies were
found across Mexico -- some charred, others stuffed in garbage bags --
in violence thought to be associated with drugs.

Federal agents arrested Juan Oscar "Las Barbas" Garza Azuara and
four others Monday evening as they arrived at a nightclub known as
Fifty- Seven in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen,
Texas.

The Mexican attorney general's offices charged that Garza was
primarily responsible for money laundering but that he also ran
logistics for key drug-distribution routes that head into the United
States through Reynosa.

Authorities said Garza was one of a dozen or so lieutenants who had
been running the Gulf Cartel since its leader, Osiel Cardenas, was
extradited to the United States in January.

Bruce Bagley, a drug-war specialist and professor at the University of
Miami, described Garza as "quite violent and ruthless." But Bagley
said it was unlikely that his arrest would stem the drug carnage.
"There are many of these guys waiting in the wings," he said.

With billions of dollars in sales on the line, the Gulf Cartel has
been battling another drug gang, the Sinaloa Cartel, over control of
trafficking routes into the United States. That means control of the
lucrative border crossing at Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas, where 40
percent of the legal goods from Mexico cross into the United States.

Steve Robertson, a spokesman in Washington for the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, called Garza's arrest significant but
declined to comment further. It was unclear whether U.S. authorities
would seek his extradition. Also detained: Garza's girlfriend Mayra
Pedraza Sanchez, his brother and sister, Josue Garza and Cantalicia
Garza, and another man, Jaime Nunez Mendoza. Cantalicia Garza
managed the group's finances, authorities alleged.

Local news reports said the nightclub's opening was supposed to take
place Saturday with a performance by Gloria Trevi, the Mexican singer
who spent five years in Brazilian and Mexican prisons before she was
acquitted of charges that she helped lure underage girls into illicit
sex.

Agents seized the nightclub and seven vehicles, including a 2004
Nissan Armada with a Texas license plate and a 2004 Grand Cherokee
registered in Virginia.

All five of those arrested -- handcuffed and guarded by masked federal
agents -- were shown to reporters at a news conference in Mexico City.
The attorney general's office declined to say what charges they faced.

Three of those arrested had criminal histories in the United States,
officials said.