GANGLAND GODFATHER

Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza, known as the Puma, was arrested with three other suspected traffickers. They were found in possession of drugs and weapons, officials said. In another operation on Sunday, the army arrested 25 suspected drug traffickers in northern Mexico who were apparently disguised as soldiers. The arrest of Juan Manuel Jurado is being seen as a blow to the feared Gulf Cartel's operations in Cancun.

Bodies of a retired Mexican brigadier general and two other men were found Tuesday in a sport utility vehicle abandoned on a highway outside of Cancun, the resort's mayor said. All had been shot many times.Mayor Gregorio Sanchez identified the victims as retired army Brig. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello, his assistant Tulio Cesar Roman, an active-duty infantry lieutenant, and civilian Juan Ramirez.Tello had been working as a security consultant to the local government when he was killed.There was speculation that the slayings were intended as a warning to Cancun officials, some of whom have sought to rid the popular beach resort of drug traffickers and other gangsters.Elsewhere in Mexico, 14 people were reported killed between Monday night and late Tuesday afternoon in the border state of Chihuahua. Most of the dead were found in Ciudad Juarez.In one incident, a man and a woman were gunned down in a supermarket parking lot and a third person was killed in the checkout line. Officials sai...

Mexican police said they seized 20 high-powered rifles, 14 grenades and more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition on Monday in a hotel district in the popular resort of Cancun.Federal police made the discovery in an apartment in the swank housing development known as "The Waves" in the heart of Cancun's tourist district, state Attorney General Bello Melchor Rodriguez told The Associated Press by phone.Among the weapons seized were seven AK-47 assault rifles, two M16 rifles and various grenade launchers, the Public Safety Department said in a statement.The police suspect the weapons were linked to organized crime but no arrests had been made, said a department spokesman who couldn't be named because he wasn't authorized to speak on the record.Popular tourist destinations, such as Acapulco, Cancun and Baja California, have suffered a wave of violence and crime in recent years — in some cases, negatively affecting the lucrative industry.

Cancun is more dangerous to Canadians than Israeli or Lebanese beach resorts. But we have a warning for the latter. Cancun and Acapulco are the centers of the drug cartel wars, which have taken more Canadian lives than the Israeli/Lebanon war. Toews is the latest case of a number of Canadians injured or killed while vacationing in Mexico: Domenic and Nancy Ianiero, of Woodbridge, Ont., were staying at the luxury Barcelo Maya beach resort near Cancun when they were found with their throats slashed on Feb. 20, 2006. The murder remains unsolved. Another Woodbridge resident, 19-year-old Adam DePrisco, was killed outside an Acapulco nightclub last January. Local authorities said he was the victim of a hit-and-run, but relatives say the teenager was beaten to death. In February, Rita Callara, 55, and a Canadian man, both from the Niagara Falls region, were each shot in the leg after a gunman fired a semi-automatic weapon at the Casa Inn hotel in Acapulco.The same weekend the Canadian touri...