Mexican police arrest members of drug gang

MEXICO CITY -- Police arrested nine members of the powerful Juarez Cartel during raids across Mexico, capturing the violent drug gang's main killers, the federal attorney general said Friday.

The arrests, carried out Thursday and early Friday in seven separate states, marked the latest blow to the country's powerful drug trade. Two weeks ago, authorities detained reputed drug lord Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel, which moved tons of cocaine and marijuana from northeastern Mexico into the United States.

The Juarez Cartel, one of the country's most powerful, reportedly operates in 15 Mexican states. The gang is based in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

During a news conference Friday, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said the arrests left the gang without its main killers. Among the nine members was the gang's accused security chief, Arturo Hernandez, a former police commander.

Defense Secretary Ricardo Vega Garcia, who also attended the news conference, said Hernandez was trying to take over the Gulf Cartel and had offered millions of dollars to anyone who could kill Cardenas.

Officials have reported a violent backlash since Cardenas's arrest.

On Wednesday, police said nine people were tortured and killed near the border city of Nuevo Laredo in what officials suspect is part of a struggle by smugglers to control the region's narcotics trade since Cardenas' arrest.

Federal prosecutors believe Cardenas recently strengthened the Gulf cartel by forging an alliance with the Juarez gang's leader, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. Fuentes faces U.S. charges of importing and distributing cocaine and marijuana as well as 10 murder counts.

Since taking office more than two years ago, President Vicente Fox has pledged to crack down on the country's drug trade. Police have responded by making several high profile arrests, including one of the country's most-wanted drug lords, Benjamin Arellano Felix.