Thread: Mexico police: Top drug boss arrested

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexican police captured a high-profile drug boss in a crackdown on gangs in the western state of Michoacan, authorities said on Monday.

Alfonso Barajas, known as "Ugly Poncho" and a local chief of the Gulf cartel, was arrested Saturday in Apatzingan, a battleground town where rival drug gangs have been fighting in recent months, Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia said.

New President Felipe Calderon, who began his six-year term this month, sent more than 7,000 soldiers, sailors and police last week to Michoacan, a transfer point for cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines smuggled north to U.S. consumers.

Troops in armored cars and federal police have set up checkpoints around Apatzingan and Aguililla and have searched thousands of vehicles and people in the region, where drug hit men, often better armed than local police, have effectively controlled swathes of the countryside.

Barajas leads a team of gunmen -- many of them thought to be former soldiers -- called the "Zetas," who fight other drug gangs on behalf of the Gulf cartel, police said.

Almost 3,000 people have been killed in the past two years across Mexico in a war between the Gulf cartel, from the country's northeast, and rivals from the western state of Sinaloa.

Most of the killings have been on the Pacific coast and near the U.S. border.

"In this struggle we won't skimp on forces and resources to take on crime and establish minimum conditions of order and authority," said Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez.

Calderon, a conservative who comes from Michoacan, has promised to make the fight against crime one of his top priorities.

It's a nice catch for them but someone else will simply step up and take his place. Until the Mexican government can reform and briing jobs to their poor citizens drug gangs will continue to prevail.