Eduardo Arellano is one of eight siblings in the infamous Arellano Felix family, which runs Mexico’s most powerful drug ring, the Tijuana cartel. Eduardo was said to be one of the bosses after several of his brothers were arrested or killed.

Just days before, Jesus Zambada Garcia, one of the leaders of the rival Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in the Mexican capital.

President Felipe Calderon declared war on organized crime and violence two years ago when he took office, sending tens of thousands of soldiers into the especially dangerous regions in the north, near the US, the main market for illicit drugs.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in bloody wars between the cartels and criminal gangs this year so far, many of them civilians caught in crossfire. In recent weeks, particularly gruesome group murders have been carried out in the northern towns.

Though the victims were yet to be identified, police believe they may include Mexicans, Guatemala or Colombians, he said.

Officials said, the bruise marks on the bodies suggested they were tortured before being killed by shooting to the back of thier head from a close range.

Meanwhile, police in the northern state of Nuevo Leon have also found two burned human heads on a road in the city of Escobedo, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

An anonymous caller tipped off authorities to the location of the human remains, the AG’s office said, adding that the condition of the heads made it impossible to determine the gender or age of the victims.

On Sunday, the decapitated bodies of eight army soldiers were found along an urban boulevard in the southern state of Guerrero.

Brutal slayings by drug cartels are on the rise in Mexico, and officials estimate that more than 5,300 people have died in organized crime-related slayings this year.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces, as rival gangs vie for control of lucrative smuggling and distribution routes.

Armed groups linked to Mexico’s drug cartels murdered around 2,700 people in 2007 and 1,500 in 2006, with the death toll this year already at more than 5,300, according to governemnt data.

Last Sunday, the police chief of Praxedia G. Guerrero, another municipality near this violent metropolis just across the US border from El Paso, Texas, was found decapitated.

Also Tuesday, a group of armed men shot dead in Ciudad Juarez two officers with the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office who were in their official vehicle outside a shopping centre.

The two men are the first law enforcement personnel killed this year in Juarez, a city where about 70 officers were killed last year.

According to press reports, so far this year, more than 65 people have been murdered in incidents linked to organised crime.

Ciudad Juarez was Mexico’s deadliest city in 2008, reporting more than 1,600 homicides blamed on drug cartels and other organised crime elements.

Eduardo Arellano is believed to be one of the most sophisticated brothers and is thought to have taken control of the cartel, called the Tijuana Cartel or “Arellano Félix Organization”. He was wanted by Mexican and United States authorities in connection with the smuggling of several tons of marijuana and cocaine from Mexico into the U.S. each year.

He and his sister Enedina Arellano Félix became the leaders of the drug cartel after their brother Javier Arellano Félix was arrested by U.S. authorities on August 16, 2006; his other two brothers Ramon, believed to be the most ruthless member, was eventually killed, in a Mazatlan shootout with the Mexican Federal Police in February 2002. while his other brother Benjamin the mastermind was arrested in March 2002, leaving the leadership open to him and his sister Enedina Arellano Felix.

Eduardo was sought by Interpol in 180 countries, and the US State Department had been offering US$5,000,000 for information leading to his arrest. Eduardo Arellano was captured by the Mexican Federal Police after a shootout in Tijuana, Baja California, on October 26, 2008. According to a Mexican official, Enedina’s son, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, has taken over the cartel’s operations.

Aside from earning money from the sales of narcotics, the Cartel also collects taxes aka piso, cuota from street level dealers, prominent businesses. Anyone passing narcotics or aliens through a plaza belonging to the Gulf Cartel is subject to payment of these ‘taxes’ to the cartel, regardless of whether the contraband is subsequently apprehended by US law enforcement or not. Payment of these taxes assure that the Cartel will not strike violently at those who pay them. The Gulf cartel does not limit itself solely to narcotics trafficking, as they have been known to kidnap local businessmen to collect money.

The wave of killings began last Wednesday, when three soldiers were stabbed to death inside a Monterrey bar.

An army veteran met the same fate last Thursday, the same day troops operating in Nuevo Leon seized nine tonnes of marijuana and an arsenal of guns and ammunition in the course of five separate battles with drug-cartel gunmen.

On Friday, four soldiers were found beheaded, two of them in a spot near one of the previous day’s clashes between the army and cartel-hired gunmen.

Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, has logged nearly 150 killings in recent months as rival drug traffickers vie to control smuggling routes and local retail sales of pot, cocaine and other drugs.

The US Consulate in Monterrey suspended operations last Thursday after unknown assailants shot out some windows and hurled a grenade that failed to detonate.

Separately, a Mexican Federal Police officer was gunned down early Monday in Ensenada, a city about 116 km south of Tijuana in the northwestern state of Baja California, authorities said.

His death followed the murders of 10 people, including two other police officers, in Baja California in a 24-hour period last weekend.

The two police officers were killed in a hail of gunfire in Playas de Rosarito, which is near Tijuana, while the other bodies were found in and around the border city.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces.

Armed groups linked to the cartels murdered around 2,700 people in 2007, and the death toll this year has already touched 4,000, according to unofficial press tallies.