MEXICO CITY, (AFP) — Mexican police have captured suspected Juarez drug cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, whose gang engaged in turf wars that have left thousands of people dead, authorities said Thursday.

Carrillo Fuentes, alias ‘El Viceroy’, was arrested by federal police in Torreon, a city in the northern state of Coahuila, a spokesman for the national security commission told AFP.

The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the 51-year-old drug lord.

Based in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the border with the US state of Texas, the cartel fought for control of the key drug transit route against the Sinaloa cartel of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.

More than 10,000 people died in Ciudad Juarez in the past eight years.

The city was once known as the world’s murder capital, but the homicide rate has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Analysts believe violence has fallen in the city because the Sinaloa cartel won the war, though officials credit police action and a crime prevention program.