Zetas cartel suspect blamed by Mexican officials for massive jailbreak, slaughter of migrants

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican navy says a suspected cartel leader captured over the weekend is accused of involvement in some of Mexico's most notorious crimes in recent years.

Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara says Salvador Alfonso Martínez Escobedo was arrested Saturday and is believed to have masterminded the massacre of 72 migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2010.

The man known as "squirrel" also has been linked to the escape of 151 prisoners in 2010 from a jail in the city of Nuevo Laredo, the recent flight of 131 prisoners in the city of Piedras Negras and the killing of U.S. citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S./Mexico border.