State police officers arrested one of the top commanders for Los Zetas Cartel. He is believed responsible in part for the wave of violence rocking central Tamaulipas.

Working in conjunction, Tamaulipas police officers and their counterparts in Nuevo Leon arrested Juan Alfonso Vasquez Canto, a man better known by the nicknames “El Gafe or Chucho.” Authorities transferred El Gafe to Tamaulipas where he is expected to go before a state judge.

Law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas that El Gafe is a longstanding boss for the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

For years, the name “El Gafe” was linked to numerous shootouts and gory executions as part of a turf war against the Vieja Escuela faction of Los Zetas. The Tamaulipas government placed El Gafe as one of the most wanted criminals and offered $2 million Pesos for his capture.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook . He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com .