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Mexican authorities have captured a suspected leader of the Gulf cartel, officials said Tuesday, CNN reported.

A man who "is presumed to be and says he is" Mario Cardenas Guillen was detained Monday in the northern state of Tamaulipas, a spokesman for Mexico's navy told reporters.

His brother, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was the cartel's founder and former leader. A U.S. federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in 2010 after he pleaded guilty to five felony charges, including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, conspiracy to launder money and threatening to assault and kill federal agents.

Mario Cardenas Guillen, also known as "M1" and "The Fat One," became one of the cartel's top leaders that year, after another brother was killed in a Mexican military operation, officials said.

Authorities had previously accused him of helping to run aspects of the cartel's operation while he was in a Mexican prison on organized crime charges.

From inside prison, authorities said he operated an auto body workshop that outfitted cars with compartments used to transport cocaine and marijuana to the United States. He was released from prison in 2007.

On Tuesday, Vice Adm. Jose Luis Vergara Ibarra, a spokesman for Mexico's navy, said Mario Cardenas Guillen was connected with a number of pending cocaine trafficking cases.

The Gulf cartel is one of Mexico's major drug-trafficking organizations. It is based in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.