that's a lot of mayo off the streets...

MEXICO CITY - Mexican agents arrested a former medical student who seized control of the remnants of the Juarez cartel, the country's attorney general said Monday, shedding light on a split within what was once Mexico's most powerful cocaine smuggling gang.

Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, captured in a shopping mall in Mexico City on Nov. 11, is accused of overseeing an organization that moved up to 5 tons of Colombian cocaine a month into Mexico and on to the United States.

Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said that since late 2004, Garcia Urquiza was responsible for as much as 20 percent of the narcotics that reached America's streets from Mexico.

"This was a mega-cartel, perhaps not as violent, perhaps operating in a different manner, but a mega-cartel," he said.

Garcia Urquiza, his brother Jesus Omar, and Maria Nereida Garcia, a suspected cartel accountant who was arrested leaving her home with nearly $3 million in cash, were among 11 people captured as part of an investigation dubbed "New Generation."

Cabeza de Vaca said the name reflects the fact that the suspects fall into a modern category of drug lords who live in relatively modest homes and drive ordinary vehicles without small armies of attention-attracting body guards.

"They act more like businessmen," Cabeza de Vaca said.