Mexican authorities have arrested a senior police official for allegedly working with drug cartels.

The arrest Tuesday of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, Mexico's representative to the international police force, Interpol was part of a probe into leaks of information to drug gangs.

Mexico has seen increasingly brutal drug-related violence, which has claimed thousands of lives.

In Tijuana, federal agents and military forces are temporarily replacing hundreds of police officers responsible for patrolling the crime-ridden border town. Five-hundred police officers were sent to training and will undergo background checks.

Earlier this month, the top officer of Mexico's federal police force, Gerardo Garay, stepped down following allegations senior officers had helped drug traffickers.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed about 36,000 troops around the country to battle violent drug gangs.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico this year. Much of the violence takes place in northern Mexico, where traffickers smuggle drugs over the border into the United States.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.