Monterrey (Mexico) (AFP) - Authorities have detained a former US soldier accused of leading a gang of kidnappers in northern Mexico, officials said Monday. The 32-year-old suspect spearheaded a band of 16 people who operated in the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Tamaulipas in the past four years, said Nuevo Leon security spokesman Jorge Domene. He carried two identities -- Luis Ricardo Gonzalez Garcia and Javier Aguirre Cardenas -- and moved to Nuevo Leon's industrial city of Monterrey from the United States in 2009, Domene said.