Member of Arellano Felix cartel arrested in San Felipe Baja 250 off road race

TIJUANA, Mexico, March 15 (Reuters) - Mexico captured a high-ranking
Tijuana drug cartel hitman on Saturday, the public security ministry
said, the second big arrest to hit the organization in five days.



Saul Montes de Oca, known as "El Ciego" (the blind guy) and close to
cartel bosses, was arrested as he was about to take part in a car race
in the tourist resort of San Felipe, the Baja California state attorney
general's office said.



Montes de Oca is suspected of being a top killer at the powerful cartel
(WOW, wouldn't wanna nerf him ... ), also called as the Arellano Felix
Organization and known for its gruesome torture and execution methods.



He also faces extradition to the United States where he is wanted on organized crime charges, the ministry said.



Police had been tracking him for five months and got a breakthrough
this week when they dismantled a kidnapping ring whose leaders said
they reported to him.



The capture was also helped by the arrest on Tuesday of another senior
Tijuana operative, Gustavo Rivera Martinez, who is being extradited to
the United States to face drug charges.



Montes de Oca worked for Rivera Martinez, handling drug cargo movements and abductions, the security ministry said.



The arrests were the latest in a series of victories for President
Felipe Calderon's 15-month-old army crackdown on drug traffickers and
the latest blow to the Tijuana gang, which has seen a string of its
leaders jailed or killed in recent years.



The feared Arellano Felix family controls drug routes in the
northwestern state of Baja California, including around the busy border
crossing of Tijuana, where it fights for turf with the Sinaloa alliance
that controls most of western Mexico.



Montes de Oca was involved in a 1997 assassination attempt on a renowned Tijuana journalist who exposed drug gang crimes.



Half a dozen raids on the Tijuana cartel this year have put around 30
mid-level operatives behind bars. A bust this month of one of its safe
houses turned up a huge arsenal of weapons, including guns decorated
with gold skulls.



One former Tijuana cartel boss was released from a U.S. jail this month
and returned home, but with many of the rest of the clan of sibling
leaders still in prison, analysts believe a sister is now in charge.



Calderon sent some 25,000 soldiers and federal police to drug hotspots
on taking office in December 2006, and sent extra troops to Tijuana in
January to curb a spike in violence.



Nationwide, drug violence killed more than 2,500 people last year and
murders so far this year total more than 500. (Writing by Catherine
Bremer; Editing by Doina Chiacu)