Pubdate: Tue, 17 Apr 2007
Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2007 Bradenton Herald
Contact:  http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58
Author: David Ovalle

KEY LEADER IN MEXICO DRUG CARTEL ARRESTED

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 
responsible primarily 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'd 
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 further comment. 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 
singing star 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, though it wasn't clear which ones.

Authorities said the Gulf cell in Reynosa was protected by Los Zetas, 
a notorious group of former soldiers who serve as cartel henchmen.

On Monday, more than 100 police officers were detained in several 
towns in Nuevo Leon, a violence-ravaged state that's also on the Texas border.

Authorities said Garza's arrest and the detentions of the officers 
were unrelated except that both were part of "Operation Nuevo 
Leon-Tamaulipas," an effort to crack down on drug dealers in the 
U.S.-Mexico border region.

On Tuesday morning, local, state and federal officers - acting on a 
tip - detained seven armed men who'd engaged in a gun battle at a 
motel in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, near the entrance to the highway to Reynosa.

The men carried badges from the attorney general's office and Nuevo 
Leon police, the national daily newspaper El Universal reported on 
its Web site. Authorities were checking to see whether the 
credentials were real.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman