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A mexican drug trafficker who had been on the run for nine years was carrying gold-plated pistols when he was finally recaptured.

Manuel Alquisires Garcia is believed to be the finance officer of the Gulf Cartel, one of the most powerful and brutal drug gangs in Mexico.

Items seized from Alquisires included the golden guns, wads of cash and bling jewellery.

An arsenal of machine guns, including Uzis, AK47s and Kalashnikovs was also discovered.

Alquisires, who is known as "El Meme", was originally arrested in June 1998 along with Osiel Cardenas Guillen.

Cardenas later escaped and became the Gulf Cartel's leader in 1999 after assassinating a rival. He was recaptured in 2003.

Alquisires escaped from a prison in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in 2002.

He had evaded authorities until Saturday when he was captured by until Saturday, when he was captured by Mexican marines in the city of Tampico.

Alquisires is suspected of trafficking cocaine from Guatemala for the Gulf Cartel.