Mexico formally charges Beltran Leyva cartel boss

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities formally charged drug kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva with organized crime, drug offenses and kidnapping on Tuesday, a week after his capture in a seafood restaurant.

Beltran Leyva, 49, was captured along with an associate on October 1 in the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende after living a discreet life posing as a businessman in a neighboring state.

The attorney general's office said Beltran Leyva was also charged with illegal gun possession.

Authorities say Beltran Leyva inherited the throne of his family's drug clan when his brother and "boss of bosses," Arturo, was killed by marines in 2009 in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City.

Two other brothers, Alfredo and Carlos, are in jail.

Prosecutors say Beltran Leyva was one of Mexico's top drug traffickers, who specialized in moving cocaine from South America and Central America to lucrative US and European markets.

Mexico had offered a $2.2 million reward for information leading to his arrest, on top of a $5 million US bounty.