Mexico City - A gang that seduced or kidnapped females and then forced them into prostitution in Mexico and New York has been crushed by arrests on both sides of the border, Mexican officials said yesterday.

Mexican federal agents arrested six people this month in an operation linked to the January arrests of four others in Queens, the federal Interior Department said in a statement.

Authorities were hunting for at least six other people, some of them "highly dangerous," according to the statement.

The department, which oversees security and immigration matters, said the gang seduced or kidnapped girls and women ages 12 to 25, raped them and then forced them into prostitution in the central Mexican cities of Puebla and Tenancingo.

Some were later taken to the United States for prostitution there. The department said the gang threatened to kill the victims or their relatives if they tried to escape.

The agency did not say how many women might have been victimized but said they have come from at least nine Mexican cities, including Mexico City, Acapulco, Guadalajara and Puerto Escondido.

You'll recall that Tenancingo figured in the NYT article 'The Girls Next Door'. Jack Shafer of Slate and others disputed the size of the problem, and I accused them of reaching regarding one of their cavils here.