'El Brad Pitt' arrested in Mexico drug swoop

Marco Antonio Guzmán accused of leading the armed wing of the Juárez cartel, which has terrorised northern Mexico.

A leader of Ciudad Juárez's La Linea cartel is arrested in connection with a cell phone-detonated car bomb that killed four people in 2010 Link to this video

Federal authorities have detained a former police officer accused of leading the armed wing of the violent Juárez cartel in northern Mexico, according to the government.

Marco Antonio Guzmán, who had several aliases including "El Brad Pitt", was captured on Wednesday in Chihuahua along with two alleged accomplices, according to a federal police statement.

Guzmán, 34, was brought to the Mexican capital on Thursday and shown, handcuffed, to the media.

Police said Guzmán was involved in a car bomb explosion that killed a federal police officer and two civilians in June 2010.

They also accuse him of being involved in drug-trafficking operations across Chihuahua. Ciudad Juárez is one of the worst affected areas of the drug war, where an estimated 3,100 people were killed in 2010.

A federal official, speaking off the record, said Guzmán's nickname, "El Brad Pitt" arose from a disguise he wore when he served as a lookout for the Juárez cartel.

To go unnoticed, he tried to look like a tourist wearing his hair long, a baseball cap and a camera around his neck. According to the official, gang associates said Guzmán looked like Pitt in a scene from the US film Spy Game about CIA agents.

A $42,000 (£26,000) reward was offered for Guzmán's capture, and police suspected he may have been planning another bombing. Federal police said in a statement he had been responsible for acquiring another load of explosives seized in Ciudad Juárez on 25 April.

He also alleged to have participated in a videotaped killing that was posted online.

Also on Thursday, federal police said they arrested a leader of the so-called Zodiac kidnapping gang, whose member used the signs of the zodiac as nicknames.

Dhither Camarillo Palafox, alias Taurus, was arrested in Cancun on Friday. His alleged associates nicknamed Sagittarius and Aquarius were arrested in 2009. The group's other leader, nicknamed Cancer, was detained in 2005.

The group allegedly carried out kidnappings in and around Mexico City.