The Mexican Navy announced early this morning that it has caught one of Mexico’s most-sought-after drug kingpins, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, who is the alleged leader of one of Mexico’s largest drug-trafficking organizations.

Costilla, also known as “El Coss,” is the suspected leader of the Gulf cartel and was marched before reporters handcuffed at a press conference early Thursday morning. Jorge Luis Vergara, a marine spokesperson, said the 41-year-old drug lord was detained without any resistance by about 30 marines at 6:00 pm on Wednesday in Tampico, located in the northeast of Tamaulipas State.

Costilla faces an array of charges and was wanted by both Mexican and US authorities. The US State Department had a reward of up to US$5m for his capture.

The arrest is a huge victory for Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown on organized crime and comes in the last few months of his reign.

The Gulf cartel has recently been engaging in a bloody battle with rival cartel, Los Zetas, for control of trafficking routes into the US. His capture comes just a week after the arrest of the suspected head of the rival faction, Mario Cárdenas Guillén. Both suspected cartel leaders were arrested in Tamaulipas state, one of the most violent states in Mexico because of battles to seize and solidify control of important cities.

Costilla features predominantly on a wanted list of 37 drug traffickers of which 20 have been captured or killed. Both Mexican and American drug agents stand by their argument that eliminating the heads of cartels weakens them, but in recent history many drug gangs have splintered creating more groups and more violence as they fight for turf. There have been 50,000 deaths, with some estimates far higher, in the last six years.

The Marines have also incorrectly named a suspect before. In June they said they had captured a son of Mexico’s most wanted man Joaquin ‘Shorty’ Guzman, only to later admit that it had not.

However, many throughout Mexico are calling the capture a huge strike against drug-trafficking in the country.

Yesterday, Colombian police confirmed that one of the oldest members of the rebel group FARC had been captured in Venezuela.

62-year old William Alberto Asprilla, alias Marquetaliano, was captured on Wednesday morning, according to Carlos Mena, director of judicial police in Colombia.

Mena stated that Asprilla was caught when he was moving between Caracas and La Guaira in the north, along with some others who have yet to be identified.

According to Mena, Marquetaliano was close to where Jorge Briceño, military chief of FARC was killed in September 2010 in a military attack.

The capture was the result of joint action between Colombian army intelligence and the Venezuelan police that had know about Asprilla’s presence in Venezuela for 6 months, said Mena.

Asprilla is said to have been behind the kidnappings of four people from the US in 1999, and is one of the co-founding members of the rebel group.

The Colombian government is now waiting for Asprilla to be deported back to the country.

The Peruvian government announced on Sunday night that Shining Path leader Florindo Eleuterio Flores, known as “Artemio”, had been captured following a clash with security forces that took place last Thursday.

Under charge of the police and armed forces, the operation to capture Artemio occurred in the Huallago Valley.

Reports of the incident stated that Artemio sustained injuries to the chest, arm, and hand in the clash last Thursday. He received medical care at the St. Lucia military base before his transfer to Lima, where he was identified to the satisfaction of Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

At its peak in the 1980s, the Maoist Shining Path waged a bombing campaign targeting buildings and infrastructure in hopes of establishing a Communist state. Following the capture of the Shining Path’s previous leader, Abimael Guzman, in 1992, the organization waned in power.

Last year, Artemio told reporters from the non-profit Legal Defence Institute that the Shining Path had been defeated. The rebel leader sought to negotiate a deal with the government to disarm in exchange for the release of prisoners.

“The Shining Path is no longer a threat to the country,” President Humala told TVPeru. “These are armed remnants with a limited capacity to cause harm. Today, this leader and all of the main leaders have been captured.”