Guatemala has captured a suspected top drug trafficker with close ties to Mexico's brutal Zetas drug gang, which has made bloody incursions into the Central American nation. The Guatemalan government said on Tuesday police and United Nations investigators had arrested Horst Overdick, alias "El Tigre" (the tiger) during a raid on his home in San Lucas Sacatepequez 20 km (12 miles) west of Guatemala City. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said Overdick was the most important nexus for the Zetas in the northern half of Guatemala, where drug gangs have left a grim trail behind them. In May 2011, the Zetas beheaded 27 farm workers in northern Guatemala in a dispute with the farm's owner over cocaine moving from South America to the United States. U.N. officials have been posted to Guatemala to help investigate corruption and organized crime rings. Overdick controlled key smuggling routes along the border with Mexico and coordinated shipments of cocaine coming from South America headed to the United States, officials said. A New York district court has requested Overdick's extradition for conspiracy to traffic cocaine. (Reporting by Mike McDonald; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
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