Guatemala destroys drug trafficking ring

Guatemalan police Tuesday destroyed a drug trafficking ring and re-captured Jose Ranferi Ponce Rodriguez, a drug lord believed to control the illicit trade in the north of the country, local media said. Ponce, whose brother Mario Ponce Rodriguez was extradited to the United States to serve a 25-year prison term on drug trafficking charges, had been caught Oct. 16 in a village near the town of Morales, but was rescued by a group of locals when he was being taken to a local police station. He was re-captured in the department of Izabal, along with his father, family members and close associates, all involved in the drug ring left behind by his jailed brother, Mario Ponce, the Guatemalan News Agency said. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said on Twitter account that so far 11 suspects have been arrested, and that the police were also looking for those preventing Jose Ponce's detention in October. The suspects will be flown to the capital, Guatemala City, to avoid any attempts by locals to release them. Captured in March 2011, Mario Ponce was believed to head the Guatemalan branch of the Mexican drug Sinaloa cartel. Guatemala is used as a transit point for some 90 percent of the drugs that enter the United States from South America.