MEXICO CITY -- In a blow to Mexico's bloodiest drug gang, soldiers raiding a house early Saturday captured its alleged leader, Benjamin Arellano Felix. They also found evidence that his brother, the gang's alleged co-leader, was dead.

An altar to Arellano Felix's brother Ramon was found in the house, suggesting he was killed a Feb. 10 police shootout in Mazatlan, as officials have suspected, a government statement said. Ramon Arellano Felix is on the FBI's 10 most wanted list with a $2 million reward for his capture.

U.S. and Mexican authorities say the brothers led a Tijuana-based operation that smuggled tons of cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana into the United States and murdered hundreds of people over the past 15 years.

"We've been seeking his apprehension for years," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson said Saturday of Benjamin Arellano Felix. "It was our top priority."

Still, the breakup of other major gangs in the past has had little or no long-term effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.

"Tomorrow there will be another substituting for them for one simple reason: While there is consumption, demand in the United States, there will be drug trafficking in Mexico," said Tijuana journalist Jesus Blancornelas, who survived an assassination attempt by the gang, in an interview with Mexico's Formato 21 radio station.

Peaceful arrest

Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested at about 1 a.m. in Puebla, a city 65 miles east of Mexico City, Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Clemente Vega Garcia announced at a news conference.

He said Arellano Felix was captured without gunfire and that he'd been taken to "a safe location" in Mexico City. Arrelano Felix had been using the alias of "Licenciado Sanchez." "Licenciado" is a common honorific here, referring to a person's professional degree, Vega said.

Also captured was Manuel Martinez Gonzalez, who Mexican officials said was an aide to the brothers involved in laundering drug money and protecting the gang leaders.

On Friday, U.S. officials announced the arrest of 22 people in Denver, San Diego and the Minneapolis area believed linked to the Arellano Felix group. Charges included conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine.

Both U.S. and Mexican officials had been trying to determine whether a man killed in Mazatlan on Feb. 10 was Ramon Arellano Felix. The man carried identification in the name of Jorge Perez Lopez, and his body was retrieved from a funeral home by a man claiming to be his cousin.