Prisoner may be cartel leader

MEXICO CITY The Mexican navy nabbed a suspected Zetas cartel leader accused of involvement in some of the country’s most notorious crimes in recent years, authorities said Monday.

Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara announced that Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo was arrested Saturday and is believed to have masterminded the massacre of 72 migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2010.

The man known as “Squirrel” also has been linked to the escape of 151 prisoners in 2010 from a jail in the city of Nuevo Laredo, the recent flight of 131 prisoners in the city of Piedras Negras and the killing of U.S. citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexican authorities had posed a $1-million US reward for Martinez.