MANHATTAN (CN) - A Guatemalan drug dealer with ties to Mexico's Zeta cartel was arrested Tuesday in Guatemala on cocaine and gun charges, and the United States seeks his extradition, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Horst Walther Overdick-Mejia is charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and possessing firearms in furtherance of narcotics trafficking, prosecutors said in a statement announcing his arrest.
Overdick is accused of importing or conspiring to import cocaine more than a ton at a time. "Guatemalan officers also recovered a drug ledger detailing the movement of guns, narcotics, and deliveries of money to Overdick-Mejia," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in its statement.
If convicted, Overdick, 44, could face up to life in federal prison.
The Zetas, many of them trained by Mexican law enforcement, broke away from the Gulf Cartel and have become a key player in the massacres and virtual civil war being fought in Mexico between the cartels, Mexican police forces and the Mexican Army, all of whom seek control of the drug business.
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