Alleged top Mexican drug lord captured

Mexican police captured an alleged mastermind of a vicious drug cartel seven months killing the cartel's founder, authorities said. Police captured Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, the reputed head of La Familia, or the Family, without firing a shot, Mexican national security spokesman Alejandro Poire said in a statement. Mendez -- known as "El Chango," or "The Monkey" -- was found in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes, Poire said. "With this capture, what was left of the command structure of this criminal organization is destroyed," his statement said. President Felipe Calderon congratulated Mexico's federal police on the arrest, saying in a Twitter post the capture of "one of the most wanted criminals" was a "great blow" against organized crime. The Mexican government had offered a $2.5 million bounty for information leading to Mendez's capture. Mendez led a faction of the cult-like Familia network that authorities allege specializes in producing and shipping methamphetamine to the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported.