Mexico City ? Mexican authorities have arrested a reputed major figure in one of Colombia’s largest and most feared drug cartels responsible for nearly half of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, U.S. officials said Friday.

Jaime Maya Duran was arrested Wednesday by agents of Mexico’s attorney general’s office in Mexico City and flown immediately to New York, where he is under indictment on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release.

Officials at the attorney general’s office in Mexico said they had no immediate comment.

A Colombian citizen, Maya Duran and three other key lieutenants allegedly took over the Norte Valle cartel, based in Cartago, Colombia, after the ring’s suspected leader, Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante, was jailed in Cuba for attempting to enter the country with a false passport two years ago.