Mexico City  - On the day of Hillary Clinton's first visit to Mexico as US secretary of state, drug violence - which was sure to dominate her discussions - continued to affect life in Mexico Wednesday.

An alleged drug trafficker whose extradition had been requested by the United States was boldly abducted from a hospital by an armed gang. And officials identified a man arrested Tuesday as one of the country's most wanted drug bosses.

Some 6,300 people, including more than 500 security and police officials, were killed in Mexico last year in incidents linked to organized crime, and the country's authorities have deployed thousands of military and police officers across several areas to combat the powerful drug cartels.

The United States is the main consumer of these drugs, and the fight against drug cartels was to dominate Clinton's visit.

In the northern city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexican federal authorities used bulldozers to bring down more than 30 chapels devoted to "Saint Death," a figure worshipped by drug traffickers, the daily Reforma reported Wednesday.

In the northern city of Chihuahua, a group of 12 to 20 armed men entered the hospital around 4 am Wednesday and took the weapons and cellphones off seven bodyguards assigned to protect a patient, Chihuahua public prosecutor's office spokesman Eduardo Esparza told German Press Agency dpa.

Doctors told the officials that the man, identified as Crispin Borunda Cardenas, had heart problems and showed evidence of "a severe medical condition, with fatal complications in the short run." For this reason, he had been admitted to hospital a month ago.

He had been arrested in 2004, and extradition proceedings were ongoing.

"The armed group went in through the emergency area and subdued the guards, who were distributed around several areas of the hospital, until they reached the place where Borunda Cardenas was," said the Public Security Ministry.

Mexican police arrested Tuesday Hector Huerta Rios, believed to be among the top 37 drug traffickers on the country's most-wanted list, the public prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

Huerta Rios was considered the most influential person in the Beltran-Leyva drug family in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

Clinton was set to visit Monterrey Thursday.

Huerta Rios' arrest came after the Mexican public prosecutor's office offered a reward of 1 million dollars for information leading to the arrest of 24 drug lords and 13 lieutenants belonging to six cartels.

The alleged drug trafficker was arrested by the Army in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Monterrey. Three rifles, one submachine gun, four guns, four grenades and 18 luxury vehicles were seized in the raid.

A report in the Wednesday edition of the daily Reforma said that Mexican federal authorities brought down more than 30 chapels devoted to "Saint Death" in Nuevo Laredo.

Although the figure is venerated by people from many walks of life, the saint has been adopted by drug gangs. In recent years, there has been a proliferation around Mexico in the construction of such chapels, varying in size from small shrines to larger buildings and made of brick, marble, iron and tile.

The gangs use Roman Catholic symbolism and ceremonies, although the formal church rejects worship of "Saint Death" as a pagan tradition and the authorities have long removed the tradition from the list of the country's religious associations. In Mexico City, there is even a sanctuary and a so-called bishop - a man with no known ties to drug trafficking - for worship of "Saint Death."

The image of the saint is a skeleton dressed and adorned as a woman, and is not based on any particular Roman Catholic saint. (dpa)