By IANS
Mexico City : The Mexican police have arrested 30 people suspected to be members of a mercenary group called “Los Zetas” having links with the country’s one of the most powerful drug cartels known as the Gulf Cartel, a top security official has said.
In a communiqué, the Public Safety Secretariat (SSP) said Sunday that the arrests were made following two separate operations in the northern state of Coahuila, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Monday.
In the operation dubbed as “La Laguna” in the town of San Pedro de las Colonias, the police raided a mechanic’s shop, which was being used as a “facade for a safe house out of which the cell operated.”
The police arrested 22 people in the raid, and five of them were later identified as public officials, including a commander for the town’s municipal police.
Authorities have also seized five machineguns, an assault rifle, a shotgun, a carbine and a revolver from them.
In another raid in Ciudad del Carmen in Campeche state on the Gulf coast, authorities arrested eight suspected members of the Gulf cartel – three women and five men – who were staying in a hotel.
The cartel is a notorious drug running organization based in Matamoros in northeastern state of Tamaulipas. The group, which is the second largest drug cartel in Mexico after rival Sinaloa cartel, mainly operates in the cities of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo.
The group traffics a considerable amount of cocaine across the Mexican border to major cities in the United States.