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MEXICO CITY: A Mexican federal judge has ordered 40 days of initial detention for Edgar Valdez, a notorious accused drug lord who police arrested this week, the attorney general said Saturday.
Valdez, known as "La Barbie" for his light skin color, was among Mexico's most wanted, and will be held for the 40-day period along with six other people, including three women, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
All eight are suspected of "criminal association, drug trafficking and carrying firearms reserved for use by the armed forces," the statement said.
"Extradition to the United States has not been ruled out," a source close to the attorney general told AFP.
Valdez was wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mexico-US border, and is charged in both a 1998 indictment in Texas and a 2002 indictment in Louisiana.
The US State Department had offered up to two million dollars for information leading to his arrest and capture, and Mexican authorities offered US$2.2 million.
The 37-year-old was detained on Monday in a police operation in central Mexico, following intelligence work which began in June 2009, a Public Security Ministry statement said.
Born in Laredo, Texas, Valdez was a key lieutenant of Arturo Beltran Leyva, who headed the cartel that bears his name and was Mexico's third most-wanted man until his December 2009 death in a military operation.
As a head of Beltran Leyva's hit squad, the bilingual Valdez was thought to have been involved in a power struggle to replace Arturo, competing with his brother, Hector Beltran Leyva.
The Beltran Leyva gang, one of a string of violent drug cartels operating in Mexico, was dealt a severe blow with the death of chief Arturo last December and then the arrest of his younger brother, Carlos.
It broke off from the powerful Sinaloa drug trafficking organization in 2008, allegedly after members of that gang tipped off authorities, helping them arrest Alfredo Beltran Leyva.
The gang is responsible for procuring arms and ammunition from the United States and trafficking illicit drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, according to the State Department.
After his arrest, Valdez was escorted under heavy security to a federal police command center.
Security forces also arrested Friday one of his lieutenants, Gonzalez Escorcia, along with his son and wife. Escorcia is accused of supplying Valdez weapons and killing his rivals, according to the Ministry of Public Security. - AFP/fa
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