Mexican cartel threatens new police chief

The new police chief in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez received a threat on just his second day on the job.

Two previous Ciudad Juarez police chiefs have quit their jobs since 2008 after criminals killed police officers and threatened to kill more unless they resigned. The city, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is suffering a bloody turf war between drug cartels that has made it one of the most dangerous places in the world.

City police spokesman Adrian Sanchez said a sign threatening Public Security Director Julian Leyzaola Perez was left beside a man who was found on Friday, tortured but alive and wrapped in a blanket.

The message said: "This is your first gift" and was signed "the Sinaloa cartel".

Mr Leyzaola was formerly the police chief in Tijuana, where he survived several plots and fought police corruption. He assumed the Ciudad Juarez post on Thursday.

On Saturday, Mexico's attorney general's office said it had extradited Esteban Rodriguez Olivera to the United States, where he will face charges in New York and Washington federal courts for trafficking cocaine and money-laundering.

Rodriguez is alleged to have run a trafficking operation linked to the Sinaloa cartel. He is accused of moving about 100 tonnes of cocaine into the US between 2004 and 2006.