Mexico Captures No. 2 Leader of Gulf Drug Cartel

Mexican authorities claimed another trophy in their crackdown on drug bosses, arresting a man who they say is second in command of the Gulf cartel, a major heroin-, marijuana- and cocaine-smuggling ring based in the border state of Tamaulipas.

Adan Medrano, believed to be the cartel’s operations chief, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Matamoros as he bought ice cream for a family member. He was armed with a gold-plated .38-caliber pistol but did not resist arrest.

The capture is the latest blow to the Gulf cartel, and the latest strike in the offensive by President Vicente Fox’s administration against the half a dozen major narcotics rings that former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration head Thomas A. Constantine once called more powerful than the Mexican government.

It’s unclear whether the cartels have been so crippled that the flow of drugs to American consumers has been slowed. But U.S. law enforcement officials have nonetheless applauded the Fox administration’s resolve in attacking cartels that were once thought “untouchable.”

Medrano, 32, was indicted in U.S. federal court in Brownsville, Texas, in 2000 on charges of marijuana trafficking and threatening the lives of federal agents. The U.S. had offered a $2-million reward for Medrano’s arrest, equal to that offered for Osiel Cardenas, the Gulf cartel’s chief.

Medrano’s capture follows the arrest in April of another Gulf cartel boss, Gilberto Garcia Mena. Mexican and U.S. officials say Cardenas’ arrest may be imminent.

At a news conference here Thursday, Mexican Deputy Atty. Gen. Estuardo Mario Bermudez said that Medrano had been under observation for months and that he expects the United States to seek Medrano’s extradition after he stands trial in Mexico.

“This weakens in a substantial manner the structure of the [Gulf] cartel,” Bermudez said.

The anti-drug campaign’s biggest prize so far is Benjamin Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana cartel, who was seized March 9 by Mexican army soldiers at his home in Puebla, about 70 miles east of Mexico City. His brother Ramon had been killed in a police shootout in Mazatlan in February.

The Juarez cartel was hit by the arrest in June of logistics chief Alcides Ramon Magana. The fugitive former governor of Quintana Roo state, Mario Villanueva, who allegedly helped facilitate drug shipments for the Juarez cartel in return for $500,000 per planeload, was caught in May.

Miguel Caro Quintero of the Sinaloa gang was arrested in December. His brother Rafael was jailed in connection with the 1985 torture-murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.

After his arrest, Medrano was transferred to a nearby army barracks, then taken via airplane to a secure location in Mexico City.

In November 1999, Medrano and Cardenas allegedly stopped a car in Matamoros carrying two U.S. agents and threatened them with death.

Bermudez, who is Mexico’s chief drug fighter, said the arrest of Arellano Felix opens the possibility of a bloody fight for dominance, especially in the lucrative Baja California smuggling corridor.

“A violent wave may be unleashed in order to take over rights to use the shipment routes formerly under the Arellano Felix organization,” Bermudez said.

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Rafael Aguirre in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.