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Mexico captures drug cartel hitman

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," or the blind man, 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 Arellano Felix Organization cartel, which is known for its gruesome torture and execution methods.

He also faces extradition to the US, 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.

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 Mexican 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.

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

Meanwhile, Mexican officials said on Saturday that 36 bodies were found buried in the backyard of a house in a city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Mexican federal agents began digging behind a Ciudad Juarez house allegedly used by the Juarez drug cartel two weeks ago after receiving an anonymous tip, officials said.

In the raid, investigators found 1,700kg of marijuana in the house.

They found six dismembered bodies and as excavations continued, the tally rose.

On Saturday, the attorney general's office said in a statement that a total of 36 bodies had been found in 16 pits in the house's backyard.

The statement said investigators are done excavating behind the house in La Cuesta neighborhood and they believe there are no more remains to be found.

The remains date back about five years and all but three apparently are males. The statement said investigators were still trying to determine how the victims died and who buried the bodies.

Cartels frequently use "safe houses" in border cities to store drugs, house gunmen and dispose of dead rivals.
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