Mexico captures reported drug lord 'La Barbie'

MEXICO CITY - A former Texas high school football player and petty street dealer who allegedly rose to become one of Mexico's most savage assassins became the third major drug lord brought down by Mexico in less than a year, and could provide intelligence on even bigger kingpins.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" for his fair complexion and green eyes, grinned broadly Tuesday as police described a life of luxury and violence that made a battleground of central Mexico, where he waged a war for control against his slain boss's brother.

The 37-year-old Valdez faces charges in three U.S. states for trucking in tons of cocaine. As a U.S. citizen living illegally in Mexico, Valdez could be deported to the United States if Mexico agrees, or he could face prosecution in Mexico for drug-related crimes. Mexican authorities say he could be responsible for dozens of murders.

The arrest was portrayed by the Mexican and U.S. governments as a victory for President Felipe Calderon, who is trying to recover public support for his war on organized crime in the face of escalating violence.

Valdez's capture Monday on a ranch outside Mexico City was the culmination of a yearlong pursuit after police made some key arrests at XXXoticas, an Acapulco tourist bar owned by Valdez, who passed himself off there as an entrepreneur.

Mexican police said they chased Valdez across five Mexican states for a year, a pursuit that intensified in recent months as they raided home after home owned by the drug lord, missing him but nabbing several of his allies. Among those taken into custody was his girlfriend and her mother, Valdez's U.S. lawyer said.

"This has been going on for quite a while," attorney Kent Schaffer told The Associated Press. "So you figure it's just a matter of time."

The arrest also yielded computers, telephones and other equipment authorities said would likely provide more information about his group.

-Associated Press

Police arrested in northern Mexico mayor's killing

MONTERREY, Mexico - Six city police officers were arrested Friday in the killing of a mayor in northern Mexico, as the country's escalating drug violence targets more public officials.

The suspects included the officer who guarded the house where Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was seized on Sunday. The officer had said he was kidnapped with the mayor and later freed unharmed.

Adrian de la Garza, head of the police investigations agency in Nuevo Leon state, told a news conference that the police officers received 6,000 pesos ($700) per month to cooperate with criminals "in different ways and different affairs," with some allegedly acting as lookouts.

"They were employees" of a criminal gang, De la Garza said at a news conference where he displayed security-camera footage from Cavazo's house, showing armed kidnappers arriving at the home on Sunday night in five SUVs.

The grainy video showed the vehicles turn on flashing lights, apparently to simulate police patrol vehicles, as armed men get out without any apparent resistance from the officer guarding the home.

Cavazos is seen being lead out of his home and forced into a vehicle at gunpoint.

The guard is then also seen getting into the front cabin of another SUV, contrary to his earlier statement claiming he had been bundled into the trunk of one of the vehicles and later dumped unharmed by the side of the road.

Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said the officers confessed to being involved in the Cavazos' killing, though some declared their innocence while being presented to the press.

"We are still looking for others who were involved as well," Garza y Garza said.

The body of the 38-year-old mayor was found handcuffed and gagged Wednesday outside of his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey.

Cavazos' death comes amid increasing violence in the northeast of the country attributed to a dispute the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas. Authorities refused to say which cartel is believed to be responsible for Cavazos' killing.

Meanwhile, a federal judge presiding over the case of former Cancun mayor facing drug-related charges survived an attack Thursday in the west coast state of Nayarit, according to a federal police report. The assault killed one of two bodyguards for Judge Carlos Alberto Elorza.

President Felipe Calderon is proposing that Mexico consider appointing anonymous judges for drug-trafficking trials, a change that would contradict the effort he promoted to build a more open judicial system.

Elorza is the judge in the case of Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor who was forced out of the Quintana Roo gubernatorial campaign when he was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. Federal police minister Wilfrido Robledo told reporters that Elorza had received threats, so his security detail was increased. He rode in an armored SUV when he came under attack.

The federal Judiciary Council, which oversees Mexico's courts, said in a statement that it "rejects violence that represents an attack on the rule of law and the country's institution."

Cavazo's killing has prompted authorities to call for more patrols by both the army and federal police in Nuevo Leon, where shootings are commonplace.

On Friday, four alleged cartel gunmen were arrested in Santiago, but De la Garza said they were not linked to the mayor's killing.

The Army said the four suspects were detained at a ranch where soldiers found 9 assault rifles, 5 grenades and what appeared to be a grenade or rocket launcher.

And in another Monterrey suburb, Santa Catarina, three security guards from the FEMSA bottling company were wounded in a shootout outside a school. FEMSA spokesman Carlos Velazquez said the guards were performing standard patrols in the area when the gunmen opened fire on their vehicles.

"We energetically condemn the atmosphere of danger that prevails in the greater Monterrey area and which puts residents lives at risk," the company said in a statement.

Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way and had sought advice on how to handle the threats.

Officials at the state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, said the army did not received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

The leading candidate for governor in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Nuevo Leon, was shot to death a week before the election. A mayoral candidate in Tamaulipas also was shot in May.

Drug violence has killed more than 28,000 people since December 2006, when Calderon started his crackdown on the cartels.

-Associated Press

Calderon: Mexico should consider anonymous judges

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon said Mexico should consider appointing anonymous judges for drug trafficking trials, an unexpected proposal that he acknowledged contradicts the country's efforts to build a more open judicial system.

Calderon, who raised the idea Thursday during meeting with senators on national security, said Mexico should at least consider the idea as drug cartels stage increasingly bold attacks on public official at all levels.

"I recognize that this goes against ... our legal tradition," Calderon said. "But in all honesty, gentlemen, I have found that citizens, police, judges, prosecutors are at risk, in the sense that they are completely exposed to criminal vengeance."

"We should consider whether this is valid or not, whether anonymous judges would work or not," Calderon said.

It was a surprise comment from the Mexican leader, who has touted an ongoing reform of Mexico's secretive, inquisitorial judicial system. That overhaul, backed by millions of dollars in U.S. aid, will create an accusatory system that puts the burden of proof on prosecutors and establish oral trials to replace proceedings now carried out almost entirely in writing.

A law approved by all 32 Mexican states in 2008 calls for the changeover to be completed by 2016.

Calderon, who gave no plan for carrying out the debate on anonymous judges, is facing mounting complaints from political opponents - and even some allies - that his national security strategy is failing. He has convoked a series of national meetings to address those concerns.

Even if Mexico decides against anonymous judges, Calderon said the country needs to find a way to protect judges, prosecutors and witnesses. He said some federal police have been gunned down just after testifying at trials.

Peru and Colombia have at times used anonymous or "faceless" judges in their wars against guerrilla groups and drug traffickers as a means to protect judges from reprisals for ruling against suspects. The use of such judges has been criticized by human rights groups.

Calderon also stepped up his criticism of the U.S. government for not doing enough about drug consumption and the smuggling of guns into Mexico. Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials both say that many of the guns used by cartels are smuggled in from the U.S.

Calderon said Mexico should mount an international campaign to bring attention "again and again to the irresponsibility of the Americans, even if they get upset and even if it disturbs their (election) campaigns."

"It's unacceptable that the voracity of the weapons industry is fomenting the levels of violence we have here," Calderon said.

Mexico's drug gang violence has reached unprecedented levels since Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug-trafficking hotspots in 2006.

More than 28,000 people have since died in Mexico's drug war, while gang attacks have become bolder and more gruesome.

On Wednesday, Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the northern Mexican town of Santiago was found dead three days after gunmen disguised as police kidnapped him from his home. Cavazos, who had been shot twice in the head, was found with his hands were bound and his head had been wrapped in tape, suggesting the work of Mexico's brutal cartels.

The region surrounding Santiago, a favorite getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey, has become a battleground for turf between the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Investigators have not determined a motive for Cavazos' assassination. The mayor, who belonged to Calderon's National Action Party, frequently spoke out against drug violence, but allies have said he had not taken any dramatic security measures that may have angered the cartels.

But Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way. Fernandez said Cavazos had come to him for advice on how to handle the threats.

"He was a little afraid and he was reaching out to people with experience in this sort of thing," Fernandez, an outspoken mayor who has also received threats and last year sent his family to the U.S. for their own safety, said in an interview with Multimedios on Wednesday night.

Officials at the Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, told The Associated Press that the army also had never received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

-Associated Press

Mexico: Hunting party of 8 killed in Oaxaca state

OAXACA, Mexico -- Attackers shot eight men to death and piled their bodies in a pickup truck in the southern state of Oaxaca, and gunmen kidnapped the mayor of a city on the outskirts of the northern industrial hub of Monterrey, Mexican authorities said Monday.

It was unclear whether Mexico's drug gangs were responsible for the Oaxaca killings or the kidnapping of Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the city of Santiago, in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.

But Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Alejandro Garza described the abducted mayor as "leading the front and showing his face in the fight against organized crime." He said no ransom demand had yet been received.

Garza said the mayor was taken from his home around midnight by men wearing uniforms from a police agency that was dissolved years ago. A security guard for the mayor who was released shortly after the abduction reported the crime.

The area around Monterrey has been wracked by bloody drug gang turf battles, and attacks on political figures by drug gangs -- once extremely rare -- have become more commonplace.

In June, gunmen believed linked to a drug cartel assassinated the front-running candidate for governor of the border state of Tamaulipas, and a month earlier gunmen killed a candidate for mayor of a Tamaulipas town.

Police said the Oaxaca victims were apparently on a hunting trip in a rural part of Oaxaca near the Gulf coast when they were attacked. The state prosecutors' office said they were shot in the head and found Sunday. One was 15 years old.

The motive was under investigation, but the region has been wracked by drug violence, land disputes and other feuds.

In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, at least nine people were killed in attacks by gunmen on two parties Sunday.

Five men were slain when gunmen burst into a house in a low-income neighborhood where a birthday party was being held and opened fire. Dozens of shells from the type of assault rifle favored by drug gangs were found at the scene.

Prosecutors said that in the other attack Sunday evening, gunmen killed three women and a man at another party. Prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the gunmen arrived in three vehicles, blocked off the street where the pool party was being held, and opened fire with assault rifles on a group of about 15 people.

Elsewhere in Ciudad Juarez, the bound, bullet-ridden bodies of four men were found dumped on a roadside.

Drug violence has taken more than 1,400 lives in Ciudad Juarez -- and 28,000 nationwide -- since the government stepped up its offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

On Sunday, Proceso magazine published the first death-scene photos to emerge of one of the higher-profile victims: drug lord Ignacio Coronel, killed in a clash with soldiers on July 29.

The photos -- Proceso did not say where it got them -- show Coronel fully clothed, lying in a pool of blood and near what appears to be a pistol.

The military has been cautious about the release of such images since pictures showing drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva with his pants down and blood-soaked money scattered over his chest emerged shortly after he was killed in a shootout with marines in December.

In weekend violence, assailants threw grenades at offices of the Televisa network in Monterrey and the border city of Matamoros. Nobody was hurt.

In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, police reported Sunday they found the bound, burned remains of a body with a federal police badge.

Veracruz detective Ricardo Carrillo Almeida said the victim appeared to have been tortured, and authorities were working to identify him. A federal police officer was reported missing in the area several days earlier.

-Associated Press

Mexican president open to change in drug strategy

MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon says he's willing to change Mexico's drug-war strategy and promised a new offensive against money laundering.

That's in the wake of hearing blistering criticism from opposition leaders. More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon launched the offensive in late 2006, sending thousands of troops to drug hot spots.

For more than 3½ years, Calderon fiercely defended his policies, even as vicious cartel turf battles and attacks on police spread deep into Mexico and all along the regions bordering the United States.

Last week, Calderon began meeting with academics, experts and civic groups to exchange ideas on combating drugs. He now appears more willing to discuss alternatives -- even the legalization of drugs, a proposal that he personally opposes.

-Associated Press

Mexican police investigate possible new drug gang

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Mexican authorities are investigating the possible emergence of a new drug gang that appeared to take credit for six killings through a message left with the bodies Monday, officials said.

The six men were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero state police said in a statement. Next to them lay a message reading: "This will happen to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers. Attentively, the New Cartel of the Sierra."

Authorities are investigating the authenticity of the gang, said an official with the state prosecutors office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official said authorities had no previous knowledge of such an organized crime group.

The car was reported stolen hours before the bodies were found, according to the police statement. The owner told police that armed men intercepted him on a highway and forced him out of the car.

One body was found stuffed inside a black bag and the rest were tied up.

At least seven major drug trafficking cartels operate in Mexico, but there are many smaller gangs throughout the country, often affiliated with one of the bigger groups.

The cartels have increasingly splintered since President Felipe Calderon launched an intensified crackdown after taking office in late 2006, deploying thousands of troops and federal police across Mexico.

Mexican authorities have blamed the infighting for a surge of gang violence that has killed nearly 25,000 people in less than four years.

Most recently, a fight for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel has increased violence in central and southwestern Mexico, including Guerrero state, which is home to the resort city of Acapulco.

The Beltran Leyva cartel splintered after its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a gunbattle with Mexican marines in December. That split occurred only a year after the Beltran Leyva gang broke with the Sinaloa cartel, which remains one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

Violence has also surged this year along Mexico's northeastern border with the U.S. since the Gulf cartel split with its former gang of enforcers, the Zetas.

In that region, the bodies of four men were found dumped in a plaza Monday in Nuevo Laredo, a city across the border from Laredo, Texas, the Tamaulipas state police said in statement. The bodies had signs of torture and were found with the remains of a dog and a cat and several threatening messages.

In the city of Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City, state investigators found the burned bodies of three men near a major highway. The victims had been bound before being burned. Painted on a nearby wall were the letters "CPS," an apparent reference to the Southern Pacific drug cartel.

Mexico: Prison guards let killers out, lent guns

MEXICO CITY - Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.

After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the Attorney General's Office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference.

The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under a form of house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have yet been filed.

Prosecutors said the prison-based hit squad is suspected in three mass shootings, including the July 18 attack on a party in the city of Torreon, which is near Gomez Palacio. In that incident, gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd of mainly young people in a rented hall, killing 17 people, including women.

Police found more than 120 bullet casings at the scene, and Najera said tests matched those casings to four assault rifles assigned to guards at the prison.

Similar ballistics tests linked the guns to earlier killings at two bars in Torreon, the capital of northern Coahuila state, he said. At least 16 people were killed in those attacks on Feb. 1 and May 15, local media reported.

Najera blamed the killings on disputes between rival drug cartels. "Unfortunately, the criminals also carried out cowardly killings of innocent civilians, only to return to their cells," he said.

Coahuila and neighboring Durango are among several northern states that have seen a spike in drug-related violence that authorities attribute to a fight between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, known as the Zetas.

Mexico has long had a problem with investigating crimes, catching criminals and convicting people. Reports estimate less than 2 percent of crimes in Mexico result in prison sentences. But Sunday's revelation suggests that even putting cartel gunmen in prison may not prevent them from continuing to commit crimes.

Interior Secretary Francisco Blake said the revelation "can only be seen as a wake-up call for authorities to address, once again, the state of deterioration in many local law enforcement institutions ... we cannot allow this kind of thing to happen again."

Also Sunday, Mexican federal police announced the arrest of an alleged leading member of a drug gang blamed in recent killings and a car-bombing in the violence-ridden border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Police described Luis Vazquez Barragan, 39, as a top member of La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel, saying he received orders directly from cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Vazquez Barragan allegedly organized payments, moved drugs and oversaw a system of safe houses in and around Ciudad Juarez.

Police said he held the same rank as fugitive gang leader Juan Pablo Ledezma, though Vazquez Barragan is not named on reward or most-wanted lists published by the Attorney General's Office, as Ledezma is.

La Linea has been blamed for a car bomb that killed three people July 15 in Ciudad Juarez and for two separate shootings March 13 that killed a U.S. consular employee and two other people connected to the consulate.

Police did not say when they caught Vazquez Barragan, but he was allegedly in possession of about a half-kilogram (pound) of cocaine and two guns.

His arrest led to a raid on a safe house where authorities detained four suspects and freed a kidnap victim.

Also Sunday, the Attorney General's Office said soldiers on patrol in Ciudad Madero in the border state of Tamaulipas seized an arsenal of about three dozen guns, 17 grenades and thousands of bullets in a house.

Elsewhere in Tamaulipas, police and prosecutors raided a lot full of truck-pulled tankers in the border city of Reynosa and seized two loaded with oil of a type sometimes stolen from the pipelines of the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos. More than a dozen other tankers and freight containers were also seized.

Mexican drug cartels have allegedly become involved in increasingly sophisticated thefts of fuel and oil from Mexico's pipelines.

In the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, authorities reported Sunday they had found the bullet-ridden bodies of six men dumped in various locations, including three in or around the resort of Acapulco. Two of the dead men were identified as people kidnapped earlier in the month.

-Associated Press