Mexico Arrests Suspected Drug Capo Wanted in US

Mexican officials say federal police have arrested a man suspected of leading a drug cartel that moved 76 tons of cocaine into the US between 2000 and 2003. The US posted a $5 million reward for the capture of Tirso Martinez Sanchez, who was arrested yesterday in the city of Leon and is being held in the high-security Altiplano prison in the state of Mexico

Officials say Martinez worked with powerful cartels including the Carrillo Fuentes and Beltran Leyva organizations, as well as Colombian smugglers Victor and Miguel Mejia Munera. The State Department says his group used front companies to smuggle cocaine in boats, rail tankers, and trucks across Mexico's border with California and Texas and on to major US cities. He is wanted on charges filed in New York. (More Mexican drug war stories.)