Michoacán Attorney General's Office confirmed that a formal order of imprisonment was issued against Servando Gómez Martínez, former leader of the Knights Templar cartel.
“La Tuta”, as the criminal boss is better known, was convicted for the kidnapping of a real estate businessman in 2011 in Uruapan.
The victim's name was not revealed.
Formal order of imprisonment for “La Tuta”
Gómez rose from schoolteacher to one of Mexico's most ruthless and wanted cartel leaders, dominating for a time Mexico's lucrative methamphetamine trade and controlling his home state through extortion, intimidation and coercion of business and political leaders.
Though it started with drugs, his gang eventually took over the state's international port, Lázaro Cardenas, and made millions from illegal mining of ore.
Gómez called the Knights Templar a "brotherhood," and boasted of its Robin Hood-like quality, saying the gang's members were born to protect the people and give them back what was rightly theirs.
(With information from AP)