Interpol Mexico chief arrested in 'Operation Clean-up'

Mexico City, Nov 19 (IANS) The Mexican authorities, in their efforts to clean up corruption at high places, have arrested the country's Interpol chief Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas for alleged complicity with crime syndicates, EFE reported Wednesday.

Vargas was taken into custody, along with a number of top police officers, for his alleged link with organised crime syndicates and the drug mafia, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said.

The anti-corruption drive, started last month, have led to the arrest of former chief of the Federal Preventive Police, Gerardo Garay, and the regional director of Mexico's federal investigation agency, Rodolfo de la Guardia.

Authorities said the two had allegedly leaked information to the Beltran Leyva brothers, who run the powerful Gulf drug cartel, 'in exchange for large sums of money'.

The Mexican government is pursuing a 'war' against the drug cartels, but the latter have reacted by unleashing a wave of violence that had taken the lives of some 5,000 people till date this year, an official at the AGO said.