Mexican marines killed Gulf cartel leader and one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords in a gunbattle near the U.S. border on Friday, the latest in a growing number of hits on the country’s drug kingpins. Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also known as “Tony Tormenta” or “Tony the Storm,” was killed along with four of his gunmen and three marines in the city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. Read more after the jump…

Cardenas Guillen was killed in a two-hour shootout in an operation that included 150 marines, three helicopters and 17 military vehicles and that was the result of more than six months of intelligence work. The navy said troops showing up to make the arrest were met with grenades and heavy weapon fire. Gun battles had raged throughout the city since the morning. Cardenas Guillen, 48, is believed to have run the powerful cartel along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, moving cocaine and marijuana into the United States. He had been indicted on drug-trafficking charges in the U.S., where authorities had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Mexican authorities offered a $2 million reward and had him on their list of the nation’s most-wanted drug traffickers.

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