Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the brutal leader of the feared Zetas drug cartel, has been captured, Belfast Telegraph said.

It is the first major blow against an organised crime leader by a Mexican administration struggling to drive down persistently high levels of violence.

Trevino Morales, known as "Z-40", was captured by Mexican marines in Nuevo Laredo, Mexican media reports said. His capture removes the leader of a corps of special forces defectors who splintered off into their own cartel and spread across Mexico, expanding from drug dealing into extortion and human trafficking.

Along the way, the Zetas authored some of the worst atrocities of Mexico's drug war, slaughtering dozens, leaving their bodies on display and gaining a reputation as perhaps the most terrifying of the country's numerous ruthless cartels.

The capture of Trevino Morales is a public-relations victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who came into office promising to drive down levels of murder, extortion and kidnapping but has struggled to make a credible dent in crime figures.