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MEXICO CITY: Mexican police have arrested one of the alleged leaders of the notorious Arellano Felix drug trafficking cartel after a shootout in the violent city of Tijuana near the US border, an official said.
"As a result of the intelligence work by the Federal Police and the exchange of international information, Eduardo Arellano Felix was located in a house" in the US border area of Tijuana, Deputy Secretary of Police Intelligence Facundo Rosas told reporters on Sunday.
Arellano Felix, 52, alias "The Doctor," is under indictment for drug smuggling by a California court in the United States which had offered a US$5-million reward for his capture. He is also sought by Interpol.
He is considered the number two in the cartel, known to be one of Mexico's most ruthless, after taking control in 2006 along with his nephew Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano.
He moved up after the arrest of Eduardo's brother Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, alias "The Little Tiger," according to Rosas.
Arellano Felix fired on federal agents after being encircled and was found with a girl, aged 11, police said. The identity of the girl was being investigated, but sources close to the case suggested she was his daughter.
The Tijuana cartel, one of the four large drug mafias operating in Mexico, is blamed by the US Department of Justice for importing and distributing hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana in the United States.
It has also been blamed for the murder and torture of police officers, informants and rivals.
The arrest of Arellano Felix is another high-profile success for Mexican authorities in the last week.
A top drug trafficker from the powerful Sinaloa cartel was arrested last Monday after a shootout with police in Mexico City.
Jesus Zambada Garcia was picked up with 15 other suspects, a federal prosecutor said.
Another suspected leader of the Tijuana cartel of the Arellano Felix brothers was detained Thursday in the northwestern state of Baja California.
Mexico has been gripped by a drugs turf war in recent years. Almost 4,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office some two years ago, despite a government crackdown involving the deployment of 36,000 troops across the country.
The violence includes gruesome beheadings, kidnappings and massacres, particularly in northern areas bordering the United States.
More than 1,000 have died in suspected drug-linked attacks in northern border areas this year, including the volatile cities of Tijuana, across from San Diego, California, and Ciudad Juarez, further east, across from El Paso, Texas.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Mexico had an up-hill battle in its fight against drug crime, but pledged to deliver aid to curb the spiraling problem.
Rice said she had told her Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa that the United States considered the Merida Initiative, a US$400-million anti-drug crime aid package signed into law in June by President George W. Bush, a priority.
"We are making a great deal of progress in getting to the point that (the United States) can disburse the funding for the initiative," said Rice.
Mexican officials, including Calderon, have called for the rapid release of resources contained in the package -- mostly helicopters and surveillance airplanes.
US drug chief John Walters said last week in Mexico City that drug-related violence was spilling across the Mexican border into the United States.
- AFP/yb
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