MEXICO CITY: Just two weeks after a chilling reprisal attack for troops' killing of the reputed boss of the Beltran Leyva cartel, police have captured one of his brothers, sending a strong message that Mexico will not back down in the drug war.

Officials said Saturday night that Carlos Beltran Leyva was arrested in Culiacan, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, where he and several of his brothers were born and allegedly started their gang.

On Dec 16, his brother Arturo, the alleged chief of the Beltran Leyva cartel, died during a two-hour shootout with marines in the city of Cuernavaca. He was the highest-ranking drug suspect taken down since President Felipe Calderon sent tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country three years ago to fight brutal drug gangs.