MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The alleged mastermind of one of the worst massacres of migrants in Mexico’s long drug war was detained on Tuesday in an operation led by federal police.

Mexican security authorities said in a statement that the suspect whom they named only as Martiniano de Jesus “N” allegedly coordinated the massacre of 72 migrants in the town of San Fernando in northern Tamaulipas state in August 2010.

The 56-year-old suspect, also believed to be involved in more recent violent crimes, was detained at a hospital in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas, according to the statement.

In one of the worst atrocities in Mexico’s prolonged drug war, the 72 bodies were found in an empty building at a remote ranch some 90 miles (145 km)from the Texas border.

The victims were mostly Central and South American migrant workers and appeared to have been blindfolded and bound before they were lined up against a wall and gunned down.