Grammy winner detained for suspected links cartel

Arrested MEXICO CITY - A Latin Grammy winner in a raid on Christmas Day with a Mexican drug cartel, last week was held on suspicion of links to organized crime, his lawyer said Wednesday. Ramon Ayala, Texas-based singer Norteno, could in the amount of organized crime and money laundering, said a lawyer Adolfo Vega Elizondo face. The Mexican authorities had said earlier this week that Ayala was released for lack of evidence. Vega dismissed the singer or his group, Los Bravos del Norte, had a connection with the drug gangs. He said they were recruited to play the game in a rich town in southern Mexico and not know that their clients were suspected members of the Beltran Leyva cartel. "You never heard any time for organized crime. They offered their services as a singer, artist," Vega told The Associated Press. Ayala, a Mexican singer and accordion player who lives in Hidalgo, Texas, was at the headquarters of the federal police in Mexico City since the attack on Friday instead, "said Vega. Officials with the Attorney General's Office, who confirmed to remain anonymous because she was not authorized to discuss the matter, Ayala and members of his group had been in custody since Friday. On Tuesday, agency officials said Ayala had been dismissed because there is no evidence to bind him to the drug cartel. Norteno Mexican bands often sing about drug trafficking and violence, and many have been rumored to run at weddings drug dealers and other parties, but few were captured. Ayala and his band were performing in a gated community of homes outside the mountain town of Tepoztlan where sailors stormed the house and a firefight broke out. Three fighters were killed and 11 others working for the Beltrán Leyva cartel were arrested under suspicion. Ayala, who sports a mustache and sideburns long and favors black cowboy hats, has a substantially along a U S-Mexican border and has two Latin Grammy Awards won in his romantic ballads of mourning and the rural life in Mexico. He had planned to hold a Christmas party Wednesday in Hidalgo, a free event, it makes each year with music, food and opportunities for poor children on line to his house to get a ticket for a gift. The 10th annual Posada went on Wednesday despite the absence of the singer, attracting about 5,000 people. The cold weather has forced the party into an arena instead of his usual place in front of the house Ayala, said representatives of the city. Instead of lining up at his house, placed hundreds of children in a corner of the arena for donations of soccer balls, skateboards, beauty kits and other toys. Jose Luis Avila, living in Reynosa, Mexico, when the event "wonderful" and was disappointed not to perform Ayala and his band. "I thought he was here. I thought they (), the Mexican authorities, who have already let go," said the 50-year-old Avila. Wrote over the years, several have been killed Norteno musicians, including popular artists northern "Narcocorrido" songs that glorify the drug trade. The most famous was killed Sergio Gomez, a singer with K-Paz de la Sierra, who disappeared after 2007, a concert in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. His tortured body was found the next day on the highway. A year ago, banda singer Valentin Elizalde and his manager and driver shortly after performing shot dead in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Police said his murder may be) connected to a gruesome video recently posted a song from Elizalde's "a Mis Enemigos" ( "To My Enemies." ___ Associated Press E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City and Christopher Sherman in Hidalgo, Texas, contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: Ramon Ayala: http://www.ramonayala.org Hidalgo Festival of Lights: http://www.hidalgotexas.com/festivaloflights/posada. html