MEXICO CITY, July 16 (UPI) -- Mexican authorities said Monday they captured Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales in an early morning raid south of the U.S. border.
A helicopter stopped a pickup truck carrying Trevino when he was about 17 miles from the border city of Nuevo Laredo, CNN quoted Mexican government security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez as saying.
Trevino, aka Z-40, was in possession of eight weapons and $2 million when he was captured, Sanchez said. Two others in the truck also were arrested.
Sanchez said Trevino was notorious for his "cruelty" and "the fury with which he attacked his victims."
Trevino, 40, was expected to face charges of homicide, torture, money laundering, organized crime, kidnapping, extortion and human trafficking.
The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million award for information leading to Tevino's capture, and the Mexican government had offered its own reward of $2.4 million.
"Credit goes to the Mexican government for this," CNN quoted an unnamed senior State Department official as saying. "It is a very big get. We work well with these guys and congratulate them."
