Claim on Mexico deaths

Mexico City - A group calling itself 'the most powerful drug cartel in Latin America' claimed it was behind political killings in Mexico and warned violence would continue if traffickers were not left alone. The statement came as Mexican police detained a key suspect in the murder last week of a senior governing party official.

Carlos Angel Cantu handed himself in to authorities in the border town of Matamoros on Saturday and was flown to the capital for questioning, police in Matamoros said. The Attorney-General, Humberto Benitez, has said Mr Cantu was hired along with the confessed gunman, Daniel Aguilar, to murder Francico Ruiz Massieu, secretary-general of Mexico's long- ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mr Cantu, a friend of Aguilar, was allegedly with him when he shot Ruiz outside a Mexico City hotel on Wednesday. Reuter/AFP