Mexico Under Siege

MEXICO OFFERS $2-MILLION REWARDS FOR TOP DRUG SUSPECTS

The Rewards Are for Information Leading to the Capture of the 24
Most-Wanted, Including Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman and Ismael Zambada,
Leaders of the So-Called Sinaloa Cartel.

Nab a drug lord, earn $2 million.

That's how much Mexican authorities offered Monday for information
leading to the capture of the country's most wanted drug suspects.

The government offered rewards of 30 million pesos, about $2 million,
each for 24 wanted figures, including Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman and
Ismael Zambada, leaders of the main trafficking gang in the
northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Authorities offered $1-million rewards for 13 lower-ranking suspects.
The offers, involving six separate drug-trafficking organizations,
were published in the federal government's official digest.

It is not the first time that Mexico has offered financial rewards for
information leading to the arrest of individual drug figures. But
Monday's offer was unusual because it included the country's top drug
suspects on one list, organized by trafficking gang.

The offer came two days before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton is scheduled to visit to discuss the drug war, which has
killed more than 7,000 people across Mexico since January 2008. U.S.
officials have expressed growing worry that serious violence could
spill into the United States.

Monday's list reflects the changing landscape of Mexico's drug
underworld. Prominent, for example, are the Zetas, who have gone from
hit men to ranking figures in the powerful Gulf cartel. Suspected Zeta
leader Heriberto Lazcano has gained clout since the 2003 arrest of
Gulf boss Osiel Cardenas, who was extradited to the United States two
years ago.

The listing also reflects a schism in the Sinaloa-based alliance led
by Guzman, Mexico's most wanted suspect. A faction tied to the Beltran
Leyva brothers is listed as a separate cartel. The split stoked
violence in Sinaloa last year that killed more than 900 people.

A Michoacan-based trafficking group known as La Familia is also listed
as a separate cartel for the first time, officials said.

Mexico's list underscores the shifting leadership of the Tijuana-based
gang once led by the Arellano Felix brothers, now dead or behind bars.
Only two suspects are listed: a onetime underling, Teodoro Garcia
Simental, and his main rival for control, an Arellano nephew named
Fernando Sanchez Arellano.

Arrest warrants have been issued against all 37 of the suspected
bosses and lieutenants, the government said. U.S. authorities have
offered separate $5-million rewards for the arrests of Guzman and
Zambada. Guzman escaped from prison eight years ago.

The Mexican reward offer includes two leaders of the cartel based in
Ciudad Juarez, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and his nephew, Vicente
Carrillo Leyva.