A drug cartel lieutenant has been arrested over a series of firebomb attacks on Mexican potato-chip company Sabritas, a subsidiary of U.S. food giant PepsiCo.

The gang-related bombings are believed to be the first time a multinational company has been targeted in Mexico's 5½-year-long drug war.

Experts suggested that the attack may be linked to the company's apparent refusal to hand over protection money to the gangs which have terrorised local residents and businesses.

Gerardo Gutierrez, president of Mexico's Business Coordinating Council, said on Monday that it was 'an isolated case' of the kind of extortion that gangs have previously practiced with small and medium-sized businesses. He called on authorities to act immediately to prevent the practice from spreading.

'What we cannot allow is for this kind of isolated case to become generalized,' Mr Gutierrez said. 'The authorities have to take forceful action.'

In a speech to an anti-crime conference on Monday, President Felipe Calderon said drug cartels threaten growth and development and called them 'an obstacle to prosperity because they attack companies large and small.'

The state attorney general's office in Guanajuato confirmed on Monday that several suspects had been detained in the attacks there, and that one was identified as a lieutenant of the Knights Templar drug cartel.

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former official in Mexico's CISEN intelligence agency, said it was the first attack he could recall against a transnational company in Mexico.

Even in Mexico's most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, the warring drug gangs have largely left alone the many foreign-operated assembly plants known as maquiladoras.

'In Ciudad Juarez, they practically never tried to blackmail the maquiladoras,' Mr Hope said. 'They focused more on small businesses... they are easier targets, and with an industrial firm, one doesn't know exactly who to blackmail.'

In a statement issued on Sunday, PepsiCo said five distribution centres were damaged, but added that no one was injured in the attacks.

The company appeared to respond to emails that circulated in Michoacan, home of the Knights Templar gang, suggesting the attacks were revenge for the unproven allegation that prosecutors used Sabritas' extensive fleet of delivery trucks to gather intelligence.

'We repeat that in accordance with our code of conduct, all of our operations are carried out in the current regulatory framework and our vehicles and facilities are used exclusively to carry our products to our customer and clients,' the company said.

Mr Hope said such a spying scenario sounded unlikely, if not impossible. Sabritas employs more than 70,000 people and has a nationwide delivery fleet of about 14,500 trucks that are a common sight even in the most dangerous and remote parts of Mexico.

He added that the attacks may not represent a new stage in drug gang extortions, but rather stem from the peculiar characteristics of the Knights Templar, a pseudo-religious cartel that split from Michoacan's La Familia cartel in 2011.

The Knights Templar organisation is a relatively local, minor player in drug smuggling, trafficking mainly in methamphetamines and marijuana. With little access to the more lucrative cocaine and heroin business, cartel members have sought to raise money from other criminal activities.

'The Knights Templar have been more aggressive in their use of extortion and alternative sources [of income] than practically any other cartel, except the Zetas,' Mr Hope said. The hyperviolent Zetas cartel was formed along Mexico's Gulf coast by deserters from an elite military unit and has been linked to the extortion and kidnapping of civilians.