MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican Navy said Wednesday it had captured one of Mexico's most wanted drug bosses, the head of the Gulf Cartel, in what would mark a major victory in President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on organized crime.

The Navy said it would give more details about the arrest of the man it believed to be Jorge Costilla, alias "El Coss," when it parades him in front of the media later Thursday.

---

A government security official said Costilla, 41, was detained in Tampico in northeastern Mexico, where the cartel is active, without putting up a fight. The U.S. State Department has a reward of up to $5 million for his capture.

No other details were immediately available.

The arrest of the suspected capo comes barely a week after the Mexican Navy captured senior Gulf Cartel member Mario Cardenas, alias "Fatso," also in the state of Tamaulipas where Costilla was caught.

The Gulf Cartel has been weakened by a violent turf war with the Zetas, a gang formed by army deserters which acted as enforcers for the cartel before breaking with their employers in 2010.

It could also have political implications because top officials in the cartel's stronghold of Tamaulipas have been accused of taking money from local drug gangs.

"All these politicians who were getting money from the Gulf Cartel ought to be very worried now because this information is going to come to light in Mexico or the United States," said Alberto Islas, a security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation, after hearing the reports of Costilla's capture.

Mexico's drug war: No sign of 'light at the end of the tunnel'

Costilla features prominently on a wanted list of 37 kingpins the Mexican government published in 2009. Well over 20 on that list have now been captured or killed.

Still, the Mexican Navy has erred before in its claims, saying in June it had captured a son of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, only to later admit that it had not done so.

Damaging revelations
Islas said he expected Costilla to be extradited to the United States, and that his testimony could prove damaging to officials in Tamaulipas and neighboring Veracruz state, which has also been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Money, drugs, guns and gangs: Child actors shame Mexico politicians with mockumentary

Tomas Yarrington, a governor of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005, is fugitive and wanted in Mexico for aiding drug gangs.

Yarrington governed Tamaulipas for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which will retake the presidency in December after its candidate Enrique Pena Nieto won a July 1 election. The PRI suspended Yarrington from the party in May.

Islas said damaging revelations about graft would raise pressure on Pena Nieto to take steps to clean up the image of the centrist PRI, which governed Mexico between 1929 and 2000. That rule was tainted by frequent allegations of corruption.

More Americas coverage on NBCNews.com

The FBI said Costilla is believed to have taken over the daily operations of the cartel after his former boss Osiel Cardenas was arrested and jailed in Mexico in 2003.

President: Mexico gang-related deaths fall by 15 percent in 2012

It said a federal arrest warrant was issued for Costilla in Texas in 2002, and that he was charged with drug offenses, threatening to assault and murder federal agents, and money laundering.

The FBI's wanted notice includes a grainy photograph of Costilla wearing a cowboy hat and a moustache.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

With Costilla's apparent capture, the cartel is looking increasingly weak, and bloody turf wars for control of the northeastern border with Texas would now intensify. "There will be an increase in violence there," Islas said.

The stage was now set for increased hostilities in the region between Mexico's two most powerful gangs, Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas, he noted.

This could prove a headache for Pena Nieto, who has vowed to quickly reduce the number of beheadings and mass executions. There have been more than 55,000 drug-related deaths in Calderon's six-year offensive against cartels.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Protesters storm US Embassy in Yemeni capital
• Libya pledges to help US catch American officials' killers
• US won't rule out Islamist link in killing of US ambassador to Libya
• US Ambassador Chris Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says
• Despite dark past, young Israelis seek new lives in German capital
• No Obama-Netanyahu meeting as rift over Iran widens

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

 

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

As the French journalist Romeo Langlois dropped down from a helicopter into the Colombian jungle alongside anti-narcotics forces on Saturday, an unfriendly group of heavily-armed guerrillas awaited them.

Langlois, a French citizen living in Colombia, was making a documentary for news channel France24 about the Colombian government’s attempts to dismantle drug labs in the jungles of Caqueta. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earns much of its money producing coca, which thrives in the heat and humidity of southern Colombia.

A brutal firefight ensued, according to media reports, and Langlois was shot. He has since been taken hostage, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters on Sunday, according to Reuters.

---

Langlois, who has been in Colombia about 12 years, removed his bulletproof vest and helmet and ran toward the rebels, possibly in a bid to prove he was not a member of the armed forces, said Pinzon after speaking to one of the soldiers with the journalist.

The FARC, dressed in civilian clothes, shot at the troops from nearby houses, Pinzon said. Heavy rains in the area made it difficult for reinforcements to immediately aid the troops.

Three troops and a police officer were killed during the firefight. Five cocaine labs used to produce coca paste were destroyed. That's a small dent in an operation where one FARC division produces thousands of pounds of cocaine every week. (One pound of cocaine nets tens of of thousands of dollars on the street.) The FARC, which produces much of the world's cocaine, moves the drugs north, through Ecuador, to Mexico where they are sold to drug cartels, according to the BBC.

After the firefight, the FARC guerillas retreated into the jungle. No FARC fighters were killed.

France24 is working with officials to find Langlois and is in contact with his family.

"We know that it is a dangerous region. We are of course concerned but we trust Romeo, who knows the region well and has a lot of experience," said Nahida Nakad, head of the channel’s foreign audiovisual editorial operations, in the statement.

Langlois’ disappearance could prompt international pressure on the FARC which won some goodwill when it released 10 members of the armed forces this month after they had been held hostage in jungle camps for more than a decade, Reuters reported.

FARC, founded in 1964, is one of the last Marxist guerilla groups in the Americas, according to France24. Labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, it has relied on the drug trade and hostages to pay for weapons, food and uniforms.

One of the group’s most famous hostages was Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician who was held hostage for more than six years. She was released in 2008.

Ingrid Betancourt: Profile of a Hostage

The FARC has made gestures toward peace in recent months, according to the BBC. The group’s leadership has also pledged to stop taking hostages for ransom.

But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned there has not been enough evidence that FARC truly intends to give up on taking hostages, according to France24.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Has the Taliban fallen on tough times?
• Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng escapes from house arrest
• Up in smoke: Netherlands aims to ban foreigners from buying pot
• UK spy death: 'Even Houdini' could not have locked himself in bag

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world