Authorities said Trevino Morales was arrested without struggle on Wednesday morning at a luxury home in the northern city of Monterrey. He is suspected of running the Zetas cartel since the former leader, his brother Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, was captured two years ago.
Mexican authorities had offered a reward of 30 million pesos (about US$ 2 million) for the capture of Trevino Morales on organized crime and weapons charges. In the US hewas wanted for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and murder, and carried a bounty of US$5 million.
Los Zetas was founded by members of an elite Mexican army unit who deserted their posts. They first worked as enforcers, protecting the drug trafficking operations of the Gulf Cartel in the late 1990s.
Later, the group broke away and formed its own territorial paramilitary cartel that became notorious for its brutality. Los Zetas is thought to be behind the massacre of 72 Central American migrants who turned down jobs as hitmen in 2010, as well as a 2011 arson attack on a Monterrey casino in which 52 people died.
