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The Mexican army says it has captured the leader of the once-powerful Tijuana cartel, Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano.
In the 1990s, the cartel controlled much of the drugs flow from the northern Mexican city of Tijuana to the United States.
But it was dealt a severe blow after the arrest of four of the brothers leading it and the killing of a fifth.
Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano is the nephew of the Arellano Felix brothers who originally founded the cartel.
Officials in Mexico say that they have killed a drug lord who was reported to have been shot dead three years ago.
Nazario Moreno, known as El Mas Loco – The Craziest One – was the founder of the La Familia cartel and regarded as the spiritual leader of its offshoot, the brutal Knights Templar.
His death was first announced after a 2010 shootout, but no body was found and he was reportedly seen alive since.
Police said he was finally tracked down and shot dead in Michoacan state.
“From a fingerprint analysis we have confirmed 100% that this was Nazario Moreno Gonzalez,” said Tomas Zeron, the head of investigations at the federal prosecutor’s office.
A candidate in next week’s regional elections in Mexico has been critically injured in a gun attack in the south of the country.
Rosalia Palma, a candidate of the governing PRI party for the Oaxaca state assembly, was hit when her vehicle was fired on, officials said.
Her husband and an aide were killed.
Violence has marred the election campaign, the first since President Enrique Pena Nieto came to power last December.
He has promised to review Mexico’s “war on drugs” policy.
More than 70,000 people are estimated to have died in drug-related violence under the presidency of Felipe Calderon between 2006 and 2012.