By Juan Alberto Cedillo

MONTERREY, Mexico – The new millionaire mayor of Mexico’s wealthiest municipality told Efe he sent his family out of the country for their safety and that local magnates are putting up $1.5 million to outfit a special municipal intelligence unit to track criminals.

Mauricio Fernandez, criticized for urging the creation of “tough cleansing groups” to battle drug dealers and kidnappers, was sworn-in Oct. 31 as mayor of the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza.

During his inauguration, Fernandez said that a man who later turned out to be Hector Saldaña Perales, reputed chief of the Monterrey branch of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, had been found slain in Mexico City along with three of his underlings.

But the four bodies were not discovered by authorities until hours after the mayor’s revelation, and the Nuevo Leon state delegation of the Mexican Attorney General’s Office questioned the mayor last week about his apparent foreknowledge of the deaths.

“I will assume authority I don’t have because we are going to take the bull by the horns to combat organized crime,” Fernandez told Efe.

Mexican law makes the war on drugs the exclusive province of the federal government.

“We will confront the problem of drugs head-on and any place we have news about their sale will be fought by this municipal government,” San Pedro’s mayor said.

He said he plans to go forward with the creation of “cleansing groups” to harry drug dealers and kidnappers.

Noting past attempts to kidnap members of his family, Fernandez confided to Efe that he sent his kin out of the country to keep them from harm.

Many have interpreted the mayor’s talk about “cleansing groups” as a proposal for death squads to hunt down criminals in San Pedro Garza, a bedroom community for executives from Monterrey-based corporate giants such as Cemex, FEMSA and Grupo Industrial Alfa, which is controlled by the Fernandez family.

In an address last week to Fernandez and other captains of industry in Monterrey, President Felipe Calderon said that the most important task for officeholders is “to obey and enforce the law.”

But Fernandez claims his approach is supported by elements in the Mexican army.

“I want to make it very clear that both the general of the 4th Region and that of the 7th Military Zone have expressed to me an absolute and total support,” the mayor said.

He said he will create “a special intelligence corps for the municipality, responsible for identifying the activities of organized crime.”

The new unit will be equipped with $1.5 million worth of Israeli and Russian gear thanks to a donation from residents of San Pedro.

Fernandez said the gang led by Hector Saldaña routinely carried out three kidnappings per week, demanding ransoms ranging from $77,000 to $385,000 and warning the families they would face reprisals if they reported the crimes.

“I have reports that ‘El Negro’ Saldaña’s people were demanding 100,000 pesos ($7,700) a month (in protection money) from bars and discotheques,” Fernandez said.

Military investigators say that Saldaña, often seen cruising around Monterrey in his Lamborghini, left the Beltran Leyva drug cartel after the brothers who run the organization ordered him to give up his profitable sidelines in kidnapping and extortion.

The bodies of Saldaña and three associates were found Oct. 31 inside an SUV with Nuevo Leon tags abandoned in Mexico City’s Daniel Garza neighborhood.

Accompanying the victims was a message that said, “For being kidnappers, boss of bosses.”

Nearly a dozen people were executed in the same manner last month in Guerrero, Morelos and Mexico states, and media accounts identified “The Boss of Bosses” as cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces in a scramble for smuggling and distribution routes.

The struggle is blamed for nearly 15,000 deaths since December 2006, when the newly inaugurated Calderon gave Mexico’s armed forces the leading role against the cartels. EFE