MEXICO CITY, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Mexican authorities detained the alleged leader of the infamous Gulf Cartel, who has since 2017 pretended to be dead, said the Nuevo Leon District attorney on Thursday.

The suspect, identified by authorities as Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, and known by the alias "Metro 28", was one of the Mexican government's top targets.

Blanco Flores was detained in an operation outside the northern city of Monterrey, state of Nuevo Leon, by the country's State Investigation Agency and the Armed Division of the Federal Police.

The crime boss was then moved to the northeastern state of Tamaulipas where he faces charges of extortion and homicide.

In February 2017, Blanco Flores was said to have been killed during a shootout but reappeared this year in a confrontation with the Mexican army in Tamaulipas.

He is considered a principal generator of violence in the north of the country.

The Gulf Cartel, founded in the north-eastern border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, is engaged in an ongoing and bloody war with rival faction, Los Zetas, for ownership of drug trafficking routes to the United States.