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Mexican police have captured alleged drug lord Carlos Beltran Leyva just two weeks after his even more powerful brother was killed in a shootout with troops.

The Public Safety Office in Mexico City said on Sunday that Carlos Beltran Leyva was arrested in Culiacan, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, on 30 December 2009.

Two weeks ago, his brother Arturo, reputed chief of the Beltran Leyva cartel, was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in the central city of Cuernavaca. He was the highest-ranking cartel suspect taken down since President Philipe Calderon sent tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country three years ago to fight brutal drug gangs.

Mexican officials in the past have described Carlos Beltran as a key member of the gang, but it was unclear if he took over as chief of the cartel after his brother died.

A third brother, Alfredo Beltran Levya, was arrested in January 2008 and another brother, Mario Beltran Leyva, is still at large and listed as one of Mexico''s most wanted alleged drug lords with a two (m) million US dollar reward offered for his capture.

The Public Safety Department said federal police found Beltran Leyva on Wednesday carrying two guns, ammunition and a false driver''s license
identifying him as Carlos Gamez Orpineda. He later acknowledged he was Arturo Beltran Leyva''s brother, the department said.

The Beltran Leyva brothers worked side by side with Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, before they broke away when Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas was arrested in 2003. They soon seized the lucrative drug routes in northeastern Mexico.

US officials say the Beltran Leyva cartel has carried out numerous killings, including many beheadings. The gang has also had great success in buying off public officials, police and others to protect their business and get advance warning of planned military raids.

While a victory for the Calderon government, the downfall of the Beltran Leyva brothers has raised fears of an intensified turf battle over areas controlled by the beleaguered cartel, leading to more deaths in a war that has already killed more than 15,000 people since Calderon took office in 2006.

In a possible sign of that fight, the bound, beaten bodies of two men were found Wednesday hanging by their necks from a highway overpass in the Sinaloa town of Los Mochis.

A message apparently from the Beltran Leyva cartel on a piece of cardboard nearby said in part that "this territory already has an owner".

Officials from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, whose intelligence information helped track down Arturo Beltran Leyva, have said one of the brothers would probably take over the family cartel.