Mexican authorities announced Dec. 30 the arrest of Alberto Espinoza Barron AKA "La Fresa" (the Strawberry), reputed head of the "Michoacán Family"—the drug cartel accused of setting off two grenades during an Independence Day celebration in September, killing eight people and wounding more than 100. The federal Special Investigative Sub-prosecutor for Organized Crime (SIEDO) said "La Familia" is believed to be allied with the Gulf Cartel in a turf war for control of Michoacán with the Beltran Leyva crime family based in Sinaloa. (El Universal, Jan. 1; CNN, Dec. 31)

A member of Mexico's presidential guard was reportedly arrested as a spy for the Beltran Leyva crime machine (Sinaloa Cartel) Dec. 26. An anonymous official of the federal prosecutor's office identified Arturo González Rodríguez as an army major who was assigned to the unit that guards the president. Prosecutors announced that González Rodríguez had been placed under hour arrest for 40 days while he is investigated on claims that he passed information to the cartel in exchange for payments of up to $100,000. More than a dozen high-ranking police and judicial officials have been detained on similar charges in recent months, but none has been linked so closely to the office of President Felipe Calderón. (AP, Dec. 27)

Soldiers arrested Timoteo Mata Cruz, deputy police chief of the Mexican resort town of Zihuatanejo (Guerrero state), and six of his officers for allegedly protecting prominent narco-jefes at a cock fight Dec. 25. Fourteen suspected members of the Beltran Leyva crime machine (Sinaloa Cartel) were arrested at the pelea de gallos. Soldiers also seized 59 packets of cocaine, 40 bags of marijuana and 20 assault rifles. (AP, Dec. 25)

Nine decapitated heads were found in plastic bags in Chilpancingo, capital of Mexico's southern Guerrero state, among 13 men assassinated in the state Dec. 21. Four were thrown off the Quetzalapa bridge in Iguala. Of the nine decapitated, eight were soldiers and one was a former subdirector of the state Judicial Police. Local residents found the heads at dawn near a shopping center; the bodies were located later, with signs of torture—three of them five kilometers away. A note was found near the heads, warning: "For each one of us they kill, we will kill 10 of them." The Defense Secretariat responded in a statement: "They are trying to frighten the Armed Forces, but we'll continue the battle." The regional army commander, Enrique Jorge Alonso, speaking at a ceremony honoring the slain soldiers warned: "The criminals made a grave mistake with this audacious crime." (AGI, Dec. 22; AFP, Cronica de Hoy, Nov. 21)

On Dec. 12 a judge in Mexico's Coahuila state ordered the release of Carlos Pavón Campos, political affairs secretary of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), on 5.611 million pesos bail (about $426,600). Pavón Campos had been held for eight days; he was arrested Dec. 4 on charges of defrauding union members. On Dec. 15, it was reported that another SNTMMRM leader, Vigilance and Justice Council president Juan Linares Montufar, had been denied bail on charges in a similar case. The union's general secretary, leader Napoleon Gómez Urrutia, is also charged; he fled to Vancouver in 2006 but continues to direct the union. The original charges reportedly included officials of the Scotiabank, but no action seems to have been taken against them. (La Jornada, Dec. 13, 15)

Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Dec. 19 his government "does not and will never negotiate" with the drug lords, and vowed to press ahead with his military crackdown on the cartels. Drug-related deaths have doubled this year, to more than 5,300, despite the deployment of 36,000 troops across the country. Mexico has also extradited a record 85 criminal suspects to the US so far this year. Mexico extradited 83 in 2007 and 63 in 2006, but still refuses to extradite anyone who could face the death penalty. (AP, Dec. 21; AFP, Dec. 20)

Another 44 people were killed in Mexico's narco wars this weekend, including four police officers in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, which has been the scene of some 1,500 violent deaths this year. Two police were killed at a post protecting the city's General Hospital, authorities said. A list naming 28 threatened police officers was found near the bodies of another five dead men. The bodies of two handcuffed men were found at a bus stop, repeatedly shot in the face. Medical staff, veterans and students took part in a 24-hour strike and public marches Dec. 12 in Juárez to protest the city's narco violence. More were killed over the weekend in the state capital of Chihuahua and across the Sierra Tarahumara region. (AFP, Dec. 16; EFE, Dec. 14)

A US anti-kidnapping expert was himself kidnapped in northern Mexico Dec. 10, Coahuila state authorities revealed. Felix Batista—a veteran FBI agent now working for ASI Global Kidnap & Ransom Response of Houston who claims to have helped resolve nearly 100 kidnapping cases—was seized by gunmen in a mini-van when he stepped outside a restaurant in Saltillo to answer a phone call. He was apparently working under contract to private businesses and families. There was no word on whether a ransom has been demanded. (Milenio, Notimex, Dec. 15)