Mexico catches key Sinaloa drug cartel suspect

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Police have arrested a suspected senior member of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel and ally of the gang's leader, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the attorney general's office said on Thursday.

Police captured the suspected kingpin, who goes by two names, Jose Luis Angulo and Pedro Mario Felix, along with 10 other drug smugglers in the northern city of Hermosillo in Sonora state bordering Arizona.

He is considered "one of the most important players in drug trafficking the northwest" of Mexico, the attorney general's office said in a statement.

It said the man was the key go-between for Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man, and his main partner in the cartel, Ismael Zambada.

U.S. anti-drug officials say breaking up the Sinaloa cartel on Mexico's Pacific coast is one of the biggest challenges to Mexican President Felipe Calderon's military-backed assault on the gangs that channel South American cocaine into the United States.

Despite Calderon's crackdown, Guzman remains locked in a fight with the rival Gulf cartel on Mexico's Atlantic coast, unleashing an unprecedented wave of drug violence in the last three years.

Some 2,000 people were killed in drug-related violence in 2006 and 1,600 victims have been registered so far this year.