Key Figure in Gulf Drug Cartel Arrested in Mexico

MEXICO CITY _ Authorities said Monday they have arrested a top operator for the Gulf drug cartel who was in charge of operations in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon and its capital city, Monterrey.

Eleazar Medina Rojas, “El Chelelo,” was detained last week in Nuevo Laredo, the home base of the enforcement arm of the Gulf cartel _ the Zetas _ to which Medina allegedly belongs. Nine other Zetas were detained along with Medina, police said.

“Police intelligent reports indicate that `El Chelelo’ was head of the Nuevo Leon territory and the northwest part of the country, as well as being identified as one of the principal killers and kidnappers from the Gulf Cartel,” said Patricio Patino, undersecretary of intelligence for the federal Public Security Ministry.

Medina Roja previously had been held in Laredo, Texas, for violation of U.S. laws, Patino said at a news conference. The Zetas are based along the Texas-Mexico border.

The arrest came when police searched a Nuevo Laredo home where they found several weapons, including a Belgian-made PS90 rifle, which is banned in Mexico and many other countries because of its ability to pierce body armor used by law enforcement.

Elsewhere in Mexico on Monday:

_Federal police took over the police station in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, and arrested eight local officers. On Saturday, gunmen had tried to kill Guadalupe Police Chief Candelario Juarez Rios, but it was unclear if the arrests were related. So far this year, federal officials have arrested more than 100 Nuevo Leon police on suspicion of helping drug cartels.

_Four men armed with AK-47 rifles tried to kill the police chief in Culiacan, Sinaloa, home state to the Sinaloa cartel. The Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported on its Web site Monday that chief Octavio Lopez Valenzuela was unhurt. His 7-year-old son was hit in the arm by a bullet, and the family’s bodyguard was badly hurt in the attack.

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