Mexico ‘Gulf cartel boss’ Jorge Eduardo Costilla captured

A suspected senior leader of Mexico’s Gulf drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas has been arrested, officials say.

They say Jorge Eduardo Costilla was picked up by Navy troops on Wednesday, but gave no details.

His capture comes more than a week after that of a suspected rival leader of the cartel, Mario Cardenas Guillen.

The Gulf cartel has been engaged in a bloody battle with the Zetas drug gang for trafficking routes into the US.

The Gulf cartel has been weakened since 2010 when relations were severed with the Zetas, its former enforcers, who are now one of Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organisations.

The latest arrest comes just months before President Felipe Calderon, who launched a crackdown on the cartels in 2006, ends his term in office.

BBC