Mexico holds army officer accused of drug gang ties

Army major Arturo Gonzalez allegedly received $100,000 a month to pass information about army anti-narcotics plans to the Beltran Leyva drug gang, Mexican daily Reforma reported.

Gonzalez was picked up as part of "Operation Clean-up," which has netted several high-ranking police officers accused of collaborating with the Beltran Leyva brothers, who split off from the Sinaloa cartel run by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Mexico's liaison to Interpol and the former head of the country's organized crime bureau were also arrested in recent weeks for alleged drug ties. Another 30 anti-drug police have been fired on suspicion of corruption.

Since taking office in 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug hot spots to take on the powerful cartels.

The frontal attack by the government has failed to curb soaring drug violence. More than 5,300 people have been killed this year, over twice as many as 2007, as traffickers fight each other and the government over drug smuggling routes.

Calderon deployed the army to fight organized crime in part because soldiers are seen as less corrupt than police.

But military men across the ranks have said they too are being offered thousands of dollars to ignore drug shipments or tip off cartels.

Last weekend, in the worst attack yet against the army, police found the beheaded and tortured bodies of eight soldiers in a town near Acapulco, their heads stuffed in a black plastic bag and tossed outside a shopping centre.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; editing by Todd Eastham)