By KRWG News
Juarez, Mexico – The Mexican navy says it has caught a founding member of the brutal Zetas drug cartel.
It says marines detained Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga on Monday in the city of Cordoba. The city is in the state of Veracruz, where the Zetas are battling for control against a gang allied with the Sinaloa drug cartel.
A navy statement says Hernandez has been the Zetas leader for the states of Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca.
The federal government has offered a 15 million peso reward for information leading to his arrest. That is about $1.2 million.
The Zetas formed from a small group of elite soldiers based in Tamaulipas who deserted to work for the Gulf drug cartel in the 1990s. They later split with the Gulf cartel and formed their own gang.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.