Police say Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known both as El Taliban and as Z-50, is the commander of the violent criminal network, the Zetas.

 

He is thought to have controlled some of the most important drug routes into the United States.

 

The arrest comes days after it was reported that he had split from the Zetas and joined a rival cartel.

 

Ivan Velazquez, who was captured by marines in the city of San Luis Potosi, is said to have ruled his territory with cold brutality¹.

 

He had a reward of 30m pesos（比索） on his head.

 

Police say he was the group's main leader in the states of Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi.

 

He is said to have been at war with another top leader of the gang, Miguel Trevino, known as Z-40.

 

 

Police believe a recent surge in mass killings² was due to rivalry³ between the two. 

 

In August, a man survived a mass shooting near the city of San Luis Potosi by playing dead. 

 

He let the attackers - from his own cartel, the Zetas - pile him into a van alongside the bodies 14 others who had been shot dead.

 

It then became clear that the Zetas had split into two factions⁴.

 

More recently, a notice was released saying Ivan Velazquez had joined forces with the Gulf⁵ Cartel.

 

The Zetas were enforcers for the Gulf Cartel in the 1990s. 

 

By 2005, they had broken away and started to run criminal enterprises themselves, and now control whole swathes（带子，绷带） of north-eastern Mexico.

 

On Monday, 35 police officers were arrested in operations in the states of San Luis Potosi and Veracruz, accused of having links to the Zetas.

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