Wife of top Mexican drug lord 'El Mencho' arrested

The wife of one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords has been arrested, the country's authorities have said.

Rosalinda Garcia was detained in the Guadalajara suburb of Zapopon in the Western state of Jalisco.

The reason for her arrest is not clear but more details are expected later on Sunday.

Garcia's husband Nemesio Oseguera, known as El Mencho, heads the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG), which along with the Sinaloa Cartel, is blamed for most of the US's illicit heroin market.

The two are among a number of gangs competing for control of the US market, following the arrest of Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo.

Mexico's murder rates have surged as a result.

In March, the Chicago branch of the US Drug Enforcement Administration said that Oseguera was its "top target" after Guzman, who was extradited to the US last year to face trial.

At the time, DEA Chicago division special agent in charge Brian McKnight said Oseguera had used "extreme violence, corruption and extortion to steadily expand his group's share of the established trafficking networks which supply Chicago's violent street gangs".

The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $5m (£3.7m) for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

They describe him as a man who has "rapidly grown CJNG from a regionally based drug trafficking organisation into an international organised crime power, involved with the production and distribution of narcotics throughout the world".

Meanwhile, the bodies of six women have been found beside a road in northern Mexico, a day after they were kidnapped by men with guns.

The motive for the killings is not clear but the state - Tamaulipas, which borders Texas - is one of the worst-affected by violent crime, much of it to do with gangs and drugs.

Mexico recorded 25,339 murders last year, a 23% jump from 2016 and the highest number since at least 1997, the year the government began tracking the data.