A former Mexican governor accused of working with one of the country's leading cocaine cartels was arrested last night after more than two years on the run.
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said Mr Mario Villanueva had been arrested in the Caribbean resort town of Cancun and would be transferred to a maximum-security prison outside Mexico City.
Mr Villanueva is accused of having had close ties with the infamous Juarez drug cartel and allowing it to land huge quantities of Colombian cocaine along the Caribbean coastline of Mexico's southeastern state of Quintana Roo during his term as governor.
He Villanueva disappeared in March 1999, just days before his six-year term came to an end and as federal agents prepared to arrest him.Mr Macedo said Mr Villanueva offered no resistance as he was finally arrested in Cancun on, but he flatly rejected suggestions that the former governor might be given special treatment.
The Attorney General said Mexican police worked closely with the US Drug Enforcement Administration in tracking down Mr Villanueva, who was accompanied by a former state police officer and another friend when he was captured.
The former governor was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for 71 years before losing power in elections last July.He said before his disappearance that he was the victim of a smear campaign led by former colleagues in the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo, who left office in December.
The new conservative government of President Vicente Fox has pledged to clamp down on official corruption and tighten cooperation with U.S. authorities in the war against drugs.