Purported cartel leader arrested

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A purported top leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel was in police custody Thursday, as authorities extended a cross-border crackdown on the gang that has included the arrest of 755 of its members in the U.S.

Vicente “El Vicentillo” Zambada was arrested before dawn Wednesday at a home in an elite Mexico City neighborhood, said Gen. Luis Arturo Oliver, the Mexican Defense Department’s deputy chief of operations.

Oliver said Zambada became a top Sinaloa cartel leader last year, with control over logistics and the authority to order assassinations of government authorities and rivals.

“This significantly affects the organization’s ability to operate and distribute drugs,” said Ricardo Cabrera, who runs the terrorism and drug trafficking unit in Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office.

Zambada’s father, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, also is considered a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel and is among Mexico’s most-wanted suspects.

Last month, President Barack Obama’s administration announced that investigators had arrested 755 Sinaloa cartel members in cities and towns all over the United States.

The U.S. is seeking Zambada’s extradition under a 2003 trafficking indictment, but he will have to face charges in Mexico before the request can be considered.

The Sinaloa cartel is alleged to have bribed top Mexican security officials including former drug czar Noe Ramirez, who is accused of accepting $450,000 to tip cartel leaders to police operations. Ramirez has denied the charges.

Oliver said police and military personnel were closely watching the exclusive Lomas del Pedregal neighborhood where Zambada was arrested after receiving complaints about armed men in cars. They surprised Zambada and five bodyguards and arrested them without a shot, seizing three AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifles, three pistols, three cars, and several thousand dollars in cash.

Paraded in front of reporters Thursday in a black blazer and dark jeans, the 33-year-old stared straight ahead, stone-faced.

His clean-cut look was a sharp contrast from a U.S. Treasury Department photo released in 2007 that showed him in a mustache and cowboy hat.