After 13 years on the lam, the world's most powerful drug kingpin was captured in a Mexican beach city, frogmarched by marines and flown to prison, abruptly ending his blood-stained reign.

In a US-backed raid, Mexican marines arrested Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman early on Saturday morning without a shot fired in a condominium in Mazatlan, a Pacific resort city in his home state of Sinaloa, officials said.

The arrest is a major victory for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose administration is striving to tame a spiral of drug violence that has killed more than 77,000 people in the past seven years.

The man whose nickname means "Shorty" headed Mexico's most powerful gang, the Sinaloa cartel, an empire that stretches along the Pacific coast and smuggles drugs to the United States, Europe and Asia.

Hours after his capture, the 56-year-old drug lord was taken to Mexico City's airport, where he was paraded in front of television cameras, wearing a white shirt and jeans and sporting thick black hair and matching mustache.

He was flanked by two masked marines who held him by the arms and the back of the neck before hauling him inside a federal police helicopter, which flew him to a maximum-security prison.

US Attorney General Eric Holder hailed the arrest as "a landmark achievement and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States".

The US had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Guzman, who is accused of being behind much of the drug violence that has plagued Mexico for years.

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said "nobody was hurt" in the arrest, which was the result of months of collaborative work with US law enforcement agencies that led to 13 arrests and the seizure of more than 100 weapons.

The authorities had tracked Guzman down in Culiacan and came close to capturing him between Feb 13 and 17 in one of the seven homes he was using.

But Guzman managed to escape through specially built tunnels linked to city drainage systems as security forces struggled to break down a steel-reinforced door, Murillo Karam said.

Guzman was eventually detained with an unidentified associate in Mazatlan.

'Great triumph'

His arrest gives Pena Nieto another celebration following the capture of the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, in July.

Pena Nieto praised his security forces on Twitter, saying "congratulations to all".

Raul Benitez Manaut, a security expert and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said it was "the most important drug war capture of the last 10 years, a great triumph for Pena Nieto".

But it remains to be seen whether the arrest will weaken the Sinaloa cartel or reduce violence in Mexico.

The capture of a top capo can lead to internal wars of succession, or encourage rival cartels to attempt a takeover. Guzman made a lot of enemies in turf wars against the Zetas and other cartels.

Analysts say Guzman's top associate, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, could peacefully seize the reins.

AFP-Reuters-AP