The suspected drug lord Eduardo Arellano Feliz was arrested Sunday in Tijuana on the Mexican border with the United States, the Mexican army said, according to dpa.
Arellano, who was using the alias Samuel Bracamontes, was seized after exchanging gunfire in a residential area of Tijuana.
Eduardo Arellano is one of eight siblings in the infamous Arellano Felix family, which runs Mexico's most powerful drug ring, the Tijuana cartel. Eduardo was said to be one of the bosses after several of his brothers were arrested or killed.
Just days before, Jesus Zambada Garcia, one of the leaders of the rival Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in the Mexican capital.
President Felipe Calderon declared war on organized crime and violence two years ago when he took office, sending tens of thousands of soldiers into the especially dangerous regions in the north, near the US, the main market for illicit drugs.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in bloody wars between the cartels and criminal gangs this year so far, many of them civilians caught in crossfire. In recent weeks, particularly gruesome group murders have been carried out in the northern towns.