1st LD Writethru: Top leader of Los Zetas cartel recaptured in Mexico

Mexican police have recaptured Luis Reyes Enriquez, known as "Z-12", a founder and leader of the Los Zetas Cartel, during an operation in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, authorities said on Friday.

Z-12 was recaptured on Thursday evening in the town of San Pedro Garza Garcia, near the city of Monterrey, Juan Carlos Silva, head of the anti-drugs division of the federal police, said in a statement.

Reyes Enriquez was first captured in June 2007 in the state of Hidalgo, when Los Zetas was amidst a violent rampage against other gangs across the country.

However, he was let go from the Puente Grande maximum security prison in April 2015 after a judge lifted his sentence. That decision was reversed in August 2015 but Reyes Enriquez went into hiding after an order for his re-arrest was issued.

He now faced "a sentence of 47 years and six months in jail," Silva said.

Reyes Enriquez was a former soldier who founded Los Zetas with other former army operatives in the late 1990s, initially as an armed group working for the Gulf Cartel. However, the group grew in force and broke off in 2010 to become arguably Mexico's most violent cartel.

Z-12 is considered to be one of the principal leaders of Los Zetas and very close to the head of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in the United States after being extradited in 2007. Endit