Cancun mayor charged with ties to drug cartels

MEXICO CITY - The mayor of Cancun has been charged with having drug trafficking ties, forcing him to end his campaign for governor in a scandal that has shaken Mexico's upcoming state elections.

A federal judge indicted Gregorio Sanchez Tuesday on charges of organized crime and money laundering a week after he was arrested in Mexico's most important tourist resort. Prosecutors say he protected two of Mexico's most brutal drug gangs and lived beyond his means.

The formal charges bar Sanchez from participating in politics, ending his run for governor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo.

Also Tuesday, authorities say a 3-year-old girl was killed together with her father by gunmen who opened fire on their car in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office, said the girl was shot once in the neck.

-Associated Press