The Secretary of Mexican Armed Marines (Semar) has detained the head of the organised crime gang, ‘Los Zetas’, in Veracruz on the country’s East coast.

Marcos Jesús Hernández Rodríguez, alias ‘El Chilango’ is head of the criminal organisation that was thought to be responsible for killing four Semar marines last April.

The four marines were working undercover as drivers on a motorcycle repair course for two weeks in April when they were kidnapped near Xalapa, in the East of Mexico.

The spokeman for the governmental force, José Luis Vergara, expressed his condolences to the families of the murdered marines and said that Semar’s actions, “strengthen the desire and the unwavering necessity to continue incessantly with the actions we are taking against these groups.”

It is believed that Rodríguez is associated with at least seven other murders and involved in three inconclusive inquiries. The marines captured him with two large guns, a smaller gun, 250 rounds of ammunition and communication equipment.

The province of Veracruz has become the centre of the narco-trafficking war in recent months, with government forces focusing on taking on ‘Los Zetas’ and the drug cartel Sinaloa.

In Mexico more than 50,000 deaths have been attributed to organised crime since December 2006 when the president Felipe Calderón launched a full frontal attack against the drug cartels.

In recent weeks, there have been separate cases of bodies being found decapitated and hanging from bridges in what is just the latest chapter in the unrelenting war on drugs.