Mexico drug kingpin caught

A major drug trafficker has been arrested in Mexico.

Federal police caught Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez, a leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel in a residential area near Mexico City.

Nicknamed "La Barbie" for his fair complexion, Valdez is believed to have been behind a surge in bloodshed in central Mexico as he fought for leadership of his cartel. US authorities put a $2 million bounty on his head.

After tracking Valdez for more than a year, his capture by Mexican officials on Monday follows the killing last month of another major drug boss, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel.

"This is clearly an important capture and will take some pressure off [President] Calderon in the short term but the impact will only be partial unless the government moves to arrest La Barbie's hitmen and dismantles his gang," said Pedro de la Cruz, a security analyst at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

Calderon is struggling to contain growing alarm in Mexico and abroad over his drug war. More than 28,000 people, mainly traffickers and police, have been killed amid vicious turf battles sparked by the army-led crackdown in the 3-1/2 years that the austere former lawyer has been in power.

Calderon has made it the central goal of his presidency to crush the powerful cartels that earn an estimated $40 billion a year. But the bloodshed, including the torture and butchering of captives by rival gangs, has overshadowed most of Calderon's successes.

Officials recently announced they had fired nearly 10 per cent of the federal police force as Calderon seeks to rein in the cartels and curb widespread police corruption.