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MEXICO CITY – The Mexican army said Monday that soldiers captured Luis Ricardo Magana, who prosecutors describe as a leading member of the violent La Familia drug cartel.

Magana is allegedly on the level of cartel leader Servando "La Tuta" Gomez and purportedly controlled methamphetamine shipments to the United States for the gang, Gen. Luis Arturo Oliver said. Gomez is one of Mexico's most-wanted fugitives and is blamed for retaliation attacks on federal police in the cartel's home state of Michoacan in western Mexico.

Oliver said Magana was captured Sunday in the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo along with five men believed to be his bodyguards. Magana was known by the alias "19 1/2" — traffickers frequently use codes and numbers similar to radio call signs to identify themselves.

The La Familia cartel has been responsible for large-scale methamphetamine production at labs hidden in rural areas. The gang also controls kidnapping, extortion and other illicit endeavors.

No formal charges were announced for Magana, who did not have a lawyer of record.

Elsewhere, police in the northern state of Sinaloa found four severed human heads in a cooler by the side of a rural roadway Monday.

An official of the state prosecutor's office said a message apparently referring to drug gangs was found with the cooler. The bodies were found later about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away.

Sinaloa is considered the cradle of at least two of Mexico's main drug cartels, whose violent battles have killed more than 11,000 people since late 2006.

The U.S. Embassy announced Monday that a team of top U.S. law enforcement officials began a three-day visit to Mexico on Sunday to explore ways to improve efforts against arms smuggling into Mexico as part of joint efforts to combat drug gangs.

Mexico contends many of the weapons used by drug cartels come from the United States and has urged U.S. authorities to do more to stop the flow of firearms.

The visiting group includes John Morton, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement; Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz; and Kenneth E. Melson, acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They will meet with their Mexican counterparts and observe the destruction of seized firearms.




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