Mexican mayor arrested over organised crime claims

A MEXICAN mayor has been arrested on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and organised crime.

Gregorio Sanchez, who took a leave of absence from the Cancun mayoral post to run for governor of the Caribbean coastal state of Quintana Roo, was taken into custody at Cancun's international airport after arriving on a flight from Mexico City. The federal attorney general's office said

Sanchez was suspected of offering information and protection to the Zetas drug gang and the Beltran Leyva cartel, which are active in Quintana Roo. His website carried an article in which the candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and two smaller parties clamed that he was being persecuted for political reasons.