The US State Department offered a USD $5 million bounty for Ramirez, declaring that the Gulf Cartel controlled the majority of cocaine and marijuana trafficking from the Mexican city of Matamoros to the United States.
However, feuding with rival gang the Zetas has diminished the Gulf Cartel, reports Reuters. Ramirez's arrest is yet another blow to the struggling cartel, which Ramirez was in dubious command of for less than a year since the capture of former cartel boss Jorge "El Coss" Costilla Sanchez in September.
According to The Guardian, Ramirez did not have undisputed control of the cartel following Costilla Sanchez's arrest.
The second major cartel arrest since Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December, Ramirez was captured by the Mexican Army one month after Mexican Marines captured Zetas leader Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, also known as "Z-40". The Zetas were formerly the defense wing of the Gulf Cartel.
Under President Nieto more than 6,000 have died in Mexico's drug war. Seventy thousand died under Nieto's predecessor President Felipe Calderon.
