The LA TIMES calls it the highest-profile arrest since Calderon took office.
In the second half of the story, the article covers accusations that the arrest was politically motivated....
Sanchez's supporters disparaged the arrest as a "Michoacanazo," referring to the Calderon government's arrests during last year's election season of more than two dozen public officials — mostly from the PRD — in the western state of Michoacan for alleged ties to organized crime. Nine of the 10 mayors arrested were later freed for lack of evidence.
I find it interesting that the political going-ons are being reported. It is reminiscent of what Bush and Alberto pulled off here. Maybe Calderon was taking notes.
If the charges are legitimate, as I'm sure any definitive evidence will be able to demonstrate, then this will indeed be a very notable event.
And you have the bigger picture, of course:
Cancun, perched along the Caribbean with a glistening international airport, occupies a strategic spot for smuggling cocaine from South America to the United States. Plus, hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists each year offer a robust market for illegal drugs.
A former Quintana Roo governor, Mario Villanueva Madrid, was extradited to the United States this month to face U.S. charges that he took millions of dollars in bribes to help the Juarez cartel smuggle cocaine while he held office during the 1990s. He was arrested in 2001.
Islas, the security analyst, said Sanchez's arrest could trigger jostling between traffickers if the Cancun market is now seen as up for grabs. "It could lead to violence," he said.
Obviously there's other kinds of dirty money (citizens united, thanks) that we haven't cleaned up on our side of the border, lest we cast stones at Mexico. [I wonder what a wingut version of a mexican politician would be like..]