MEXICO CITY (AFP) ? Mexican police have captured a top leader and founder of the feared Zetas drug cartel wanted in connection with the murder of a US federal agent, authorities said Monday.
Police arrested Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, also known as "El Mamito," on Sunday as he was on his way to his mother's house in his home state of Campeche, the Security Ministry said.
Rejon Aguilar, the feared cartel's third-ranking official, is wanted in connection with a February 14 attack that killed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata and seriously wounded his partner.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has offered $5 million for his arrest, said police spokesman Ramon Eduardo Pequeno.
The capture "is a high-level blow to the structure of the criminal group," said national security spokesman Alejandro Poire.
With his capture the last remaining original Zetas founder is group leader Heriberto Lazcano, Poire said.
The Zetas leader was arrested in Atizapan de Zaragoza, in the central state of Mexico, officials said.
According to his criminal file, "El Mamito" joined the Mexican army in 1993, and three years later was recruited into an elite team organized to fight Zapatista guerillas in southern Mexico.
In 1999 Rejon Aguilar and 14 other military deserters formed the Zetas, a group hired to work as hitmen for the powerful Gulf cartel.
The Zetas later split from their employers, sparking bloody Mexican turf wars.
The group was among the first Mexican crime syndicates to use heavy weaponry and full-scale military tactics, reportedly amassing an arsenal that has included grenade launchers and even ground-to-air missiles.
The Zetas are also accused of two mass killings in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas and one in the Guatemalan border province of Peten.
On Monday Mexican forces seized a Zetas camp in Nuevo Leon where they found a stockpile of weapons, including 18 assault rifles.
Some 37,000 people have been killed in mainly drug-related feuds since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown four years ago involving some 50,000 troops and police reinforcements that has so far failed to stem the bloody tide of violence.
The news came after the southwestern US state of Texas warned Americans to avoid the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo over the July 4 independence day weekend, fearing the Zetas would target US citizens.
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