Cartel greets new Juarez police chief with threat
© 2011 The Associated Press
March 12, 2011, 6:06PM


CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The new police chief in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez received a threat on just his second day on the job, an official said Saturday.

Two previous Ciudad Juarez police chiefs have quit their jobs since 2008 after criminals killed police officers and threatened to kill more unless they resigned. The city across the border from El Paso, Texas, is suffering a bloody turf war between drug cartels that has made it one of the most dangerous places in the world.

City police spokesman Adrian Sanchez said a sign threatening Public Security Director Julian Leyzaola Perez was left beside a man who was found on Friday tortured but alive and wrapped in a blanket.

The message said "this is your first gift" and was signed "the Sinaloa cartel."

Leyzaola was formerly the police chief in Tijuana, where he survived several plots and fought police corruption.

Leyzaola assumed the Ciudad Juarez post on Thursday.

Also Saturday, Mexico's attorney general's office said it had extradited Esteban Rodriguez Olivera to the United States, where he will face charges in New York and Washington, D.C. federal courts for trafficking cocaine and money-laundering.

Rodriguez, also known by nicknames including "Dangers" and "the Blond," is alleged to have run a drug-trafficking operation out of New York linked to Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He is accused of moving about 100 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 2004 and 2006.

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