THE BORDER REPORT

Mexico is abuzz this morning with news of the capture of a group of Sinaloans who were planning to kill Pres. Felipe Calderón.

Let's ignore the Guadalara summit for the moment and dismiss as completely ridiculous the idea that this arrest was manufactured to coincide with Pres. Obama's visit to Guadajalara for the North American Leaders' Summit.

Let's assume that this would be an absurd charge. Of course. Cláro que no.

What we know is that the Ministry of Public Security engaged the arrest of Dimas Díaz in Culiacán along with four other Sinaloans. The investigation, according to El Universal, began a year ago after Díaz's boss, El Mayo Zambada, lost an undisclosed sum of cash to Mexican law enforcement.

Díaz is a former SSP officer himself, but had no officer status, merely a lowly ministerial, reports Reforma. He was in charge of moving dope through Sonora and Baja California in semi-trucks shipping avocado and pepper to the border, after the killing of Jose Lamberto Verdugo in January.

Zambada's been working since the Reagan Administration; he's left idealism and movie stunts behind long ago. Why would he place a former cop in charge of the murder of a president? Díaz wasn't even military. And why hit the president at all, knowing full well the kind of heat this is going to bring down? Had this been the Arellanos, the Zetas, maybe the Michoacán whack-jobs, I'd be less suspicious. But moves like this aren't Mayo's M.O.

We'll see if the charges stick. Watch for the arraigo, the length of the investigation and where Díaz is housed while it's conducted, will tell us everything we need to know.