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Purported cartel figure arrested in Mexico; huge cache of arms seized

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, November 8, 2008
From staff and wire reports

MEXICO CITY – Authorities on Friday captured the purported No. 2 figure in the paramilitary enforcement arm of the Gulf cartel that operates along the Texas-Mexico border.

Authorities display arms seized from a house in the Mexican city of Reynosa. The seizure was Mexico's largest ever involving organized crime. And the Mexican army announced Friday that it made the largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons in Mexico's history the day before.

They did not specifically say if the seizure and the arrest of Jaime González Duran of the Zetas were connected, although both occurred in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Mr. González Duran was detained after a shootout, officials said.

Officials also did not say whether the seizure of the weapons and the arrest of Mr. González Duran had any connection with an FBI intelligence report that warned the Gulf cartel was stockpiling high-powered weapons in Reynosa to prepare for possible confrontations with U.S. law enforcement.

Mr. González Duran was mentioned in the FBI report as having ordered dozens of hit men to the Reynosa area as part of those plans.

The cache of 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT were seized at a house in Reynosa, Mexican Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said Friday.

"The seizure ... is the largest in the history of Mexico involving organized crime," Ms. Morales told reporters at Defense Department headquarters, where the army displayed hundreds of rifles, pistols and shotguns, and laid out rows of grenades and crates of ammunition.

She said the largest previous bust involved a cache of 280 weapons found in 1984.

Soldiers detected the latest cache when they chased suspects into the home after the men refused orders to stop, Ms. Morales said. Three suspects were detained.

Ms. Morales did not take questions from reporters. An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, later confirmed that the weapons seized Thursday belonged to the Gulf cartel.

From staff and wire reports