4 Held in Killing of Anti-Drug Officer in Mexico

Authorities announced Wednesday that four alleged members of a notorious Tijuana drug cartel, including two suspects who had fled to San Diego, have been arrested in the assassination last month of a top Mexican anti-narcotics police commander.

They were the first arrests announced in a spate of bloody attacks beginning in February that have claimed the lives of seven men who had been active or former Baja California anti-drug officials.

U.S. officials had grown increasingly concerned that the lack of arrests and punishment in the deaths could give gunmen a sense of impunity and lead to more violence near the California border. U.S. and Mexican authorities are especially worried by several recent attacks that they attribute to the Arellano Felix brothers, reputed to be powerful Tijuana-based drug lords.

Mexican Atty. Gen. Antonio Lozano Gracia pledged in a news conference late Wednesday that the government “will act energetically against those who attempt to kill public servants.” He vowed to beef up police forces in Tijuana to protect anti-drug officials.

Mexican authorities said the four suspects arrested this week are accused in the slaying of Ernesto Ibarra Santes, a federal police commander in Tijuana highly respected by U.S. authorities for his work against drug cartels.

Lozano said Ibarra Santes was killed on orders from alleged drug lord Ramon Arellano Felix because the police commander was “coming ever closer to apprehending him.”

According to authorities, one suspect, Francisco Cabrera Castro, drove a car in which gunmen from the Arellano Felix group pursued Ibarra Santes through Mexico City on the night of Sept. 14.

From within the car, a pair of gunmen--identified only by their nicknames, Shark and Skeleton--unleashed two bursts of gunfire at the taxi carrying Ibarra Santes, Lozano said. The hail of bullets killed Ibarra Santes, his two bodyguards and their cab driver.

Cabrera Castro was arrested Sunday in Mexico City, authorities said.

On Monday, authorities detained another suspect, Gilberto Vazquez Culebro, in the Mexican capital. He allegedly provided vehicles and arms for the assassination attempt, said Hector Villareal, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

The U.S. Justice Department oversaw the arrest of the two suspects who had fled to San Diego, authorities said. The suspects were identified as Alfredo Odallan Palacios and Emilio Valdez Mainero.

Lozano said that the two men were among a group of gunmen dispatched to carry out the killing of Ibarra Santes, though he said they did not actually shoot the official. U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin and FBI spokeswoman Jan Caldwell in San Diego declined comment on the arrests.

Lozano said authorities were still investigating whether Mexican police officers may have been involved in Ibarra Santes’ death. He said the man who organized the assassination--identified as Shark--received a beeper message with details of the police commander’s flight to Mexico City shortly before the killing.

Tijuana officials have said the police commander’s travel plans were highly confidential.

Authorities also discovered police uniforms during raids carried out in conjunction with the arrests, according to a communique from the attorney general’s office.

The Arellano Felix organization is also suspected in the slaying in late September of Jorge Garcia Vargas, another top anti-drug official in Tijuana.

In addition to the four arrests, Mexican authorities announced the detention of what they called a top security official from the Arellano Felix organization, Fausto Soto Miller. He was picked up last weekend in Guadalajara and was providing valuable information about the drug gang, authorities said.