Nicaragua Says It's Dismantled Drug Cell
 Associated Press
| | Escorted by anti-drugs police, Mexican alleged members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Jesus Flores Vega, center, and Juan Morales Castaneda, right, arrive to the court of Tipitapa, northern Managua, Monday, April 16, 2007. Central America has become an increasingly popular shipment route for South American cocaine, and Mexican gangs have reportedly begun to play an increasingly role in trafficking in the region. (AP /Esteban Felix) |
Nicaraguan police on Monday announced the arrest of more than two dozen local members of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel but said they were still seeking the group's leader.
Among the 26 people detained over the weekend was Mexican national Jose Juvenal Mendoza Gonzalez, the purported chief of territorial logistics for the local group, said National Police Chief Cesar Cuadra.
Also arrested were five other Mexican nationals, two Guatemalans and 16 Nicaraguans, Cuadra said. Still at large was the alleged leader, Carlos Cisnado Pasos.
Authorities on Friday arrested five alleged Mexican members of the cell, including Mendoza Gonzalez, in northern Nicaragua. They also nabbed two Nicaraguans linked to the cell, Cuadra said.
The Sinaloa cartel is fighting the rival Gulf Cartel in Mexico for billion-dollar drug smuggling routes into the United States. The battle has led to beheadings, grenade attacks and execution-style killings across Mexico and the violence has taken a particularly heavy toll on police.
The cartel's leader, Joaquin Guzman, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 and is still at large. |
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News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
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