Mexican marines have captured the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, in a city bordering the US, according to officials.

Trevino, alias Z-40, was detained in Nuevo Laredo, the north-eastern Tamaulipas state city bordering Texas, along with two other people.

"They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday," an official from the federal attorney-general's office said on condition of anonymity.

An interior ministry official also confirmed the arrest.

The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organised crime groups in Mexico, founded by former soldiers and known for their brutality.

Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in recent years, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.

Many of the worst atrocities in the drug war have been blamed on the Zetas, including the massacre of dozens of migrants in northern Mexico in 2010 and the dumping of 49 decapitated bodies near the city of Monterrey last year.

Although he lacked a military background, Trevino had a reputation for extreme violence.

Along with two of his brothers, he was charged with laundering drug proceeds through horse racing last year.

US authorities accused Trevino and 13 others of pouring millions of dollars in proceeds from drug trafficking into the purchase, training and racing of horses across four states.

The State Department had offered a reward of up to $US5 million for information leading to Trevino's capture.

His arrest comes eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only to lose Lazcano's body hours later.

After his death, gunmen burst into a funeral home and stole his body, which has never been recovered.

Trevino is the highest-profile drug kingpin detained since president Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December.

During the six-year term of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, authorities captured or killed two dozen of the 37 most wanted drug capos.

But Mr Calderon's time in office was marked by more than 70,000 drug-related murders between 2006-2012.

AFP/Reuters