Mexican 'drugs legend' arrested

By Claire Marshall
BBC correspondent in Mexico City

Higuera Guerrero was reportedly captured in northern Mexico

A man claimed to be responsible for smuggling half the cocaine that reaches the US from Mexico has been arrested.

Gilberto Higuera Guerrero had a $2m (£1.1m) price on his head.

According to Mexico's Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mr Higuera Guerrero was "a legend" in the drugs trafficking world.

He was arrested in a house in Mexicali, in northern Mexico, in an operation codenamed Thunder, using intelligence from US and Mexican officials.

War on drugs barons

The US state department offered the $2m reward for his capture last year.

Mr Higuera Guerrero had been a leading figure in the notorious Arellano Felix cartel, although he split with them late last year to work for a rival gang.

Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, made tackling organised crime a priority when he took office in 2000.

The drugs barons operating on the border have been hard-hit by a series of high-profile arrests and killings of their key operatives over the last few years.

However, according to the US drug tsar, so far this has had little impact on the quantity of drugs flowing into the United States.