Mexico’s police have paraded one of the country’s most violent drug lords after they arrested him and six others at a house guarded by cartel gunmen.

It is hoped the capture of Edgar “ La Barbie” Valdez, so called due to his fair complexion, will mark a breakthrough in President Calderon’s fight against the drug barons.

But Valdez’s arrest is unlikely to end the bloodshed that presents a growing image problem for Mexico.

Elsewhere in Cancun eight people died when suspected drug hitmen threw Molotov cocktails into a bar. Businesses throughout Mexico are often hit for protection money by drug cartels which wreak revenge on those that do not pay.

And it has been a violent few days with seven more people dying in a 12-hour shootout when gunmen in six cars refused to stop at a military check point in the state of Veracruz.

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