(Reuters) – Federal police said on Tuesday they had arrested a major methamphetamine trafficker linked to Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, the latest in a series of blows against the country’s largest drug smuggling network.
Officers thrust Jaime Herrera, alias “The Old Man,” in front of photographers in Mexico City after capturing him on Monday in Sinaloa, the state after which Guzman’s cartel is named.
Herrera, who was arrested with a pile of drugs, guns and radios, is part of a large family that U.S. authorities have accused of trafficking heroin and other drugs from northeastern Mexico into the United States since the 1950s. Members of the family have been convicted on both sides of the border for trafficking.
In the last decade, the 43-year-old has smuggled tons of methamphetamine from Sinaloa to be sold in the Los Angeles area, the federal police said in a statement.
Mexican security forces have been closing in on high level operators close to Guzman in a series of recent arrests.
Guzman, who has a $5 million reward on his head, is believed to be hiding in the Sierra Madre mountains close to where Herrera was arrested.
More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and launched an offensive on narcotics traffickers.
(Reporting By Ioan Grillo; editing by Mohammad Zargham)