Mexican authorities have arrested the suspected leaders of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, one of the drug gangs responsible for the Pacific resort's deadly violence, officials said Tuesday.
Victor Aguirre, alias "El Gordo" (The Fat One), was detained by federal forces on Mexico's opposite coast, in the eastern city of Merida, authorities said.
It was the latest in a series of high-profile arrests for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto in recent weeks.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Radio Formula that Aguirre "led everything" in the gang's operations in Acapulco.
Officials did not give more details about the arrest.
While Acapulco, located in the crime-riddled state of Guerrero, is beset by turf wars among gangs jostling for control of drug routes, Merida and the rest of the Yucatan peninsula have been a relative oasis from Mexico's drug violence.
"Some want to hide to manage their operations. We have to examine this," Osorio Chong said.
Federal police captured Knights Templar leader Servando "La Tuta" Gomez in western Michoacan state on February 27, followed by last week's arrest of Zetas cartel chief Omar "Z-42" Trevino in a wealthy suburb of the northern industrial city of Monterrey.
