Wrong man again for Mexico police

Drug-related crime is a major problem for Mexico

Mexican police have admitted three major arrest blunders within a month after a feared "drug baron" turned out to be a car showroom employee.

When Javier Arellano was stopped for going through a red light, police mistook him for Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, known as The Wildcat.

Troops and police stood by as he was questioned in the town of Mexicali.

"These guys use plastic surgery to completely change their faces," a local police spokesman said later.

"But he's just a namesake," Fernando Ruiz added.

"It was a mix-up. He's called the same but he's a different person - a normal, hard-working guy."

'Nothing new'

According to the spokesman, Mr Arellano was used to being mistaken for The Wildcat, whose cartel is one of Mexico's most notorious, according to Reuters news agency.

"He told me he's had problems because of his name in Guadalajara and Tijuana," said Mr Ruiz. "He's used to this."

Last week, police in Mexico City freed a man arrested on suspicion of being Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the reputed head of the Juarez drug cartel.

Joaquin Romero Aparicio, an architect who is said to bear only a slight physical resemblance to the other man, was released after DNA testing.

In June, police detained a Lebanese man who had already been cleared of terrorism suspicions by US officials.

Mexico said the US had failed to notify them he had been taken off an international alert list.