Tijuana drug cartel leaders arrested

Tijuana: Mexican federal police arrested two suspected gang leaders on Monday, delivering another big blow to a brutal drug cartel that terrorised the border city of Tijuana for several years.

The capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers.

Lopez, known as "El Muletas", and Garcia, known as "El Chiquilin", were arrested on Monday in La Paz, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mexico's Public Security Department confirmed the arrests in a brief statement, describing Manual Garcia as the gang's leader after his brother's arrest and Lopez as the current second-in-command. It said the arrests were the result of leads starting with the capture of Teodoro Garcia in La Paz on January 12, but offered no further details on the operations.

Roderick said there were no US indictments pending against the suspects.

Notes on corpses

The gang was known for its brutality, having executed, beheaded and mutilated hundreds of rivals in Tijuana, which is across the US border from San Diego. Gang members pinned notes to corpses and dissolved bodies in caustic soda. Tedoro Garcia's arrest netted 19 mobile phones and two laptop computers.

Twelve more cartel suspects were arrested in two raids in late January, including two men and a women who were allegedly about to dissolve a body in a bathtub with chemicals.

Manuel Garcia is the youngest of three brothers.

The oldest brother, Marco Antonio, was arrested in a shootout with Mexican authorities in Tijuana in 2004.