Mexico police say drug cartel killed No. 2 cop

By ALEXANDRA OLSON

The Associated Press

May 12, 2008

A police officer and four other suspects with ties to a powerful drug cartel have been arrested in the assassination of Mexico's acting federal police chief, authorities said Monday.

The five _ three men and two women _ belonged to a criminal cell acting on the orders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, said Gerardo Garay, the anti-drug coordinator for the federal police. Police captured all five suspects hours after the assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez on Thursday.

The alleged leader of the group, Jose Antonio Montes Garfias, had been assigned to a federal police unit in the northern state of Sinaloa since February, though he was on medical leave during that period and never reported to work, Garay said. He is suspected in the killing of another federal police officer just days before Millan's death.

Millan was one of at least four high-ranking officers killed since May 1 in attacks the government has blamed on gangs resisting its crackdown against drug trafficking. The assassinations have prompted stepped up calls from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for Congress to approve a US$1.4 billion (euro910 million) proposal to help fight drug crime in Mexico and Central America.