REFILE-Mexican police catch top Tijuana drug hitman
(Repeats to restore drop words in lead)
By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico, March 15 (Reuters) - Mexico captured a high-ranking Tijuana drug cartel hitman on Saturday, a source at the local state attorney general's office said, the second big arrest to hit the organization in five days.
Saul Montes, known as "El Ciego" (the blind guy), was arrested by federal police along with an associate at a car race where he was due to be driving, a high-level source at the Baja California state attorney general's office told Reuters.
Montes is suspected of being a top hitman at the powerful cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization and known for its gruesome torture and execution methods.
Police had been tracking him for five months and got a breakthrough this week when they dismantled a kidnapping ring whose leaders said they reported to Montes, Moreno said.
The capture came after police arrested another senior Tijuana cartel operative, Gustavo Rivera Martinez, on Tuesday and the government said it would extradite him to the United States to face drug charges there.
The arrests were the latest in a series of victories for President Felipe Calderon's 15-month-old army crackdown on drug traffickers and the latest blow to the Tijuana gang, which has seen a string of its leaders jailed or killed in recent years.
The feared Arellano Felix family controls drug routes in the northwestern state of Baja California, including around the busy border crossing of Tijuana, where it fights for turf with the Sinaloa alliance that controls most of western Mexico.
Half a dozen raids on the Tijuana cartel this year have put around 30 mid-level operatives behind bars. A bust this month of one of its safe houses turned up a huge arsenal of weapons, including guns decorated with gold skulls.
One former Tijuana cartel boss was released from a U.S. jail earlier this month and returned home, but with many of the rest of the clan of sibling leaders still in prison, analysts believe a sister is now in charge.
Calderon sent some 25,000 soldiers and federal police to drug hotspots on taking office in Dec. 2006, and sent extra troops to Tijuana in January to curb a spike in violence.
Nationwide, drug violence killed more than 2,500 people last year and murders so far this year total more than 500. (Writing by Catherine Bremer, editing by Todd Eastham)
By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico, March 15 (Reuters) - Mexico captured a high-ranking Tijuana drug cartel hitman on Saturday, a source at the local state attorney general's office said, the second big arrest to hit the organization in five days.
Saul Montes, known as "El Ciego" (the blind guy), was arrested by federal police along with an associate at a car race where he was due to be driving, a high-level source at the Baja California state attorney general's office told Reuters.
Montes is suspected of being a top hitman at the powerful cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization and known for its gruesome torture and execution methods.
Police had been tracking him for five months and got a breakthrough this week when they dismantled a kidnapping ring whose leaders said they reported to Montes, Moreno said.
The capture came after police arrested another senior Tijuana cartel operative, Gustavo Rivera Martinez, on Tuesday and the government said it would extradite him to the United States to face drug charges there.
The arrests were the latest in a series of victories for President Felipe Calderon's 15-month-old army crackdown on drug traffickers and the latest blow to the Tijuana gang, which has seen a string of its leaders jailed or killed in recent years.
The feared Arellano Felix family controls drug routes in the northwestern state of Baja California, including around the busy border crossing of Tijuana, where it fights for turf with the Sinaloa alliance that controls most of western Mexico.
Half a dozen raids on the Tijuana cartel this year have put around 30 mid-level operatives behind bars. A bust this month of one of its safe houses turned up a huge arsenal of weapons, including guns decorated with gold skulls.
One former Tijuana cartel boss was released from a U.S. jail earlier this month and returned home, but with many of the rest of the clan of sibling leaders still in prison, analysts believe a sister is now in charge.
Calderon sent some 25,000 soldiers and federal police to drug hotspots on taking office in Dec. 2006, and sent extra troops to Tijuana in January to curb a spike in violence.
Nationwide, drug violence killed more than 2,500 people last year and murders so far this year total more than 500. (Writing by Catherine Bremer, editing by Todd Eastham)
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