Mexican coup as police capture alleged drug kingpin 'La Barbie'

AN AMERICAN-born fugitive known as "La Barbie", who allegedly led a violent smuggling network, grinned as he was paraded in handcuffs yesterday - the third suspected drug lord to fall in Mexico in the past ten months in a coup for president Felipe Calderon's war on cartels.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who got his improbable nickname from his fair complexion, is wanted in the United States for allegedly smuggling tons of cocaine. In Mexico, he is blamed for a brutal turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges, decapitations and shootouts as he and a rival fought for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel.

Security forces had been closing in on Valdez for over a year. He was captured outside Mexico City by an elite squad of federal police. Four other people, described by police as Valdez's inner security circle, were arrested with him.

Mr Calderon called Valdez "one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and abroad". He vowed authorities would continue to chase the rest of his gang.

Mexican authorities say Valdez has been battling for control of the drugs cartel since boss Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a December shoot-out with marines in Cuernavaca, a resort town south of the Mexican capital. Valdez's fight against Hector Beltran Leyva - a brother of Arturo - has made a battleground of what was once a relatively peaceful pocket of the country and brought the drug war ever closer to Mexico City. Their fight also has spread westward toward Acapulco.

Federal Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas Facundo said Valdez was responsible for dozens of deaths, although he could not specify how many.

Two other Beltran Leyva brothers have been arrested under Mr Calderon, who in 2006 deployed thousands of federal police and soldiers to fight drug-traffickers in their strongholds.

Drug-gang violence has surged since the offensive began, claiming an unprecedented 28,000 lives. But the crackdown has brought down several major traffickers.

Aside from the Beltran Leyvas, drug lord Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was killed in a gunbattle last month when soldiers raided his home in Guadalajara. Coronel was the No3 in the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world's most powerful drug-trafficking gangs.

Valdez was born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, and belonged to the Sinaloa cartel until the Beltran Leyva's split off in 2008 - one of many divisions among cartels in recent years that have fuelled gang violence.

Experts said Valdez's capture could be especially valuable because of the intelligence he might provide on other traffickers, including Sinaloa chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord.

"Because they caught La Barbie alive, he will be a very important source of information," said Raul Benitez, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who studies the drug trade. "La Barbie was once the bodyguard of El Chapo."

Mr Facundo said Valdez has already provided new insight into the raid that took down Arturo Beltran Leyva. Valdez told police that Beltran Leyva called him as marines were closing in and that he had urged the capo to turn himself in, advice the drug lord apparently ignored.

After that, Mr Facundo said, the Beltran Leyva gang started suspecting that Valdez had tipped authorities to Beltran Leyva's whereabouts.

Much of the most recent violence in central Mexico has been directed at Valdez's allies.

The decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in Cuernavaca last week, along with a message threatening allies of "La Barbie" and signed by the gang led by Hector Beltran Leyva. Two more bodies were hung from bridges near Acapulco later in the week, although no gang claimed responsibility.