Marijuana.com

newgrowerNY

Mexico drug offensive nets alleged cartel leader
12.17.06|International Herald Tribune

Mexican soldiers have detained an alleged drug cartel boss, the military said Sunday, marking the first major arrest since President Felipe Calderon sent thousands of troops to restore order in a western state terrorized by drug gangs.

Elias Valencia, an alleged head of the Valencia cartel, was arrested along with four other people in a mountain ranch near the town of Aguililla on Friday, said Gen. Cornelio Casio, one of several officials in charge of the anti-drug offensive.

Last week, Calderon ordered more than 6,000 soldiers, marines and federal police to his native state of Michoacan, which has seen a wave of drug-related killings and beheadings.

Officials blame the violence on a turf war between the Valencia and Gulf cartels over lucrative marijuana plantations and smuggling routes for cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States.

Mexican investigators allege that Elias Valencia is one of several figures who have run the cartel since his father, Armando Valencia, was arrested in 2003.

Authorities say Aguililla, some 120 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of the state capital of Morelia, has been a key stronghold of the Valencia cartel. Assailants recently killed 10 police in two attacks on winding highways nearby that make perfect terrain for ambushes.

Under the new offensive, soldiers supported by armored vehicles and helicopters have combed the area for wanted traffickers and drug plantations.

Calderon — who was narrowly elected in July on a pro-business, law-and-order platform and took office Dec. 1 — has vowed a nationwide battle against drug violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives this year.

On Wednesday, troops in Michoacan clashed with alleged traffickers protecting a marijuana plantation, killing one man and arresting another. On Saturday, soldiers arrested a man alleged to be a key Sinaloa cartel lieutenant in the western city of Guadalajara.

But many security experts say it will take more than brute force stop the cartels, who earn billions of dollars (euros) supplying the U.S. markets.

Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, sent thousands of troops to battle drug gangs, accelerated drug seizures and arrested several high-profile traffickers without making much of a dent on the quantity of narcotics crossing into the United States.

Critics of Fox's crackdown say it created a power vacuum in the cartels, leading to increased violence as rivals fought to replace the arrested leaders.