Los Zetas Kingpin Morales Captured In Mexico

The boss of the notorious Los Zetas drugs cartel, Omar Trevino Morales, has been captured in Mexico.

Morales, alias 'Z-42', was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in a suburb of the northern city of Monterrey.

The drugs kingpin was one of the country's most wanted men and had a 30 million peso (£1.3m) bounty on his head.

He was wanted on weapons and organised crime charges.

Los Zetas are considered "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel" by the US government.

The largest of Mexico's eight major cartels in terms of geographical presence, they dominate vast areas of the country's east.

Morales is the brother of former Zetas' leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, arrested in July 2013 and described as the most bloodthirsty gang leader in Mexico.

Heriberto Lazcano, known as "El Lazca" and thought to be the other main leader of Los Zetas, was killed by marines a year earlier.

The latest arrest also comes just days after police detained the country's public enemy number one, Servando Gomez, head of the Knights Templar gang .

Mexico's drug cartels are locked in violent battles for control and influence.

They have existed for several decades, but saw their power increase dramatically following the decline of Colombia's dominant Cali and Medellin cartels in the 1990s.

More than 100,000 people are thought to have died in Mexico's drug wars since 2006.

Los Zetas have been blamed for some of the most shocking atrocities during that time, including the massacres of dozens of migrant workers, an arson attack on a casino in Monterrey that killed 52 people and the dumping of 49 decapitated bodies near the city.

The gang was originally formed as a group of enforcers for the Gulf Cartel in Mexico's north east, close to the border with Texas, but turned on them in 2010 in an increasingly bloody turf war.