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For many, organic is no longer the top priority for good, ethical food. Photograph: Jupiterimages/Getty Images

Lunch with Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, is in many ways a vindication of the organic movement she leads. We meet at Canteen, on Bristol's Gloucester Road, a very socially mixed neighbourhood where people didn't just sign petitions against the opening of a Tesco Express, some planned to firebomb it, a plot that led to riots when police raided the squat where they believed it was being hatched. It is a sign that organic ideals are not a middle-class preserve that the food here is not only delicious but seasonal, from small local farms with high animal welfare and environmental standards. What's more, Browning's pea risotto and my sustainable mackerel cost less than many takeaways. But one word is conspicuous by its absence on Canteen's daily changing chalkboard menu: organic.

It's a trend that can be seen at many farmers' markets, farm shops, restaurant and cafes that trade on their sustainable, ethical ethos. As many of the broad principles that organics advocates have become more mainstream, the prestige of actually being certified organic has diminished. Last year, the value of sales of organic foods in the UK went down by 3.7% and the number of producers and processors fell by 4% to 7,287.

Sales of organic products have been falling since the credit crunch first bit in late 2008. But thrift alone does not seem to be enough to explain what is now a medium-term trend, since Fairtrade, another ethical certification with a price premium, has not suffered the same reverse, with sales rising by an estimated 12% last year. What seems to be the case is that customers who used to use the organic label as a kind of proxy for good, sustainable produce now look to the specific virtues that most concern them: seasonality, locality, fair trade or animal welfare. Indeed, sometimes their other ethical concerns trump the desire for organics, such as when they choose home-grown peas over air-freighted organic alternatives, or value the Fairtrade label more than Soil Association accreditation. For many, organic is no longer the top priority for good, ethical food.

Indeed, even the Soil Association's own president, Monty Don, acknowledged as much when he took on the role in 2008: "I would much rather someone bought food that was local and sustainable but not organic than bought organic food that had to be shipped across the world."

So the question I wanted to chew over with Browning as we enter the associations's Organic September is whether "organic" as we have known it has had its day. For all the good the movement has done in challenging the most egregious practices of modern industrial farming, take any key issue on food and farming today and you will find that it's never simply a case of conventional bad, organics good, or even better.

Take, for example, the issue of animal welfare. One reason for buying organic is that the standards required for welfare are pretty high. That, at least, is the intention, and as Dr Becky Whay, senior lecturer in animal welfare and behaviour at the University of Bristol, says: "intention is worth quite a lot within the industry". But the research that has been done on whether organic standards are all really better for animals "is not very clear cut" and she tells me several times that "there are no easy answers".

Indeed, there may be some cases where organic animals are worse off. "I would never raise livestock organically," wrote Susan, a US sheep and goat producer and college-educated scientist on her baalands blog. She believes "organic standards do not allow you to treat a sick animal with anything that is scientifically proven to be effective. You can't use antibiotics, anthelmintics, anti-inflammatories, coccidiostats, steroids, hormones, feed additives, or many other conventional therapies."

It's actually more complicated than this, which is another reason why "organic" has become an inadequate guarantor of quality: people think "organic" has a clear, single meaning but standards vary between and sometimes within countries. There is a UK certification for Scottish Salmon, for example, but no EU standard for this or any other farmed fish. The EU sets the minimum standard for other organic produce, but it can be certified by one of 10 different bodies, all of which have their own set of rules. Most of the differences are quite small, but some are not: in America antibiotics are completely banned, in the UK their limited use is allowed. Because of the restrictions, however, Whay says that "there are certainly areas where we know that the organic sector is struggling to deal with, such as digital dermatitis, which is an infectious foot disease of cattle, where we know mass antibiotic treatment is very effective".

The rules do state that the animal's welfare must come first, even if that means it loses its organic status by being treated. But this creates potentially bad incentives. As Roger Longman of the non-organic White Lake Cheeses puts it: "A lot of farmers go: 'Well, she's not really, really sick, I won't treat her, I'll just hope she gets better,' and that's wrong, to my mind."

Soil Association Standards also state that farmers "must use complementary therapies and trace elements" with the proviso "provided that their healing effect works for the species and the condition you are treating". This is not very reassuring to those who believe in evidence-based medicine when read in the light of standard 10.10.21, which says you should "use effective homeopathy".

The Soil Association's recent strategy document, The Road to 2020, stated that organics must be "rooted in robust science and supported by an extensive evidence base". But unless you cherry-pick – which both defenders and detractors often do – the evidence appears to be very mixed. Washington State University professor John P Reganold is no apologist for big farming, having led the US's first and still only undergraduate major in organic agricultural systems. But writing in Nature earlier this year, he noted that the most recent meta-analysis showed "organic farming systems in developed countries produce yields that are 20% lower than their conventional counterparts". Even Browning doesn't deny that the evidence doesn't all stack up on the side of organics: "On biodiversity, organic clearly has a lot to offer. On climate change, on the greenhouse gas side of things, it does in some areas and not others."

But perhaps the biggest battle organics faces is that it has been robbed of one of its biggest selling points. Research by the Soil Association and Sustain suggests that the belief that organic food is "healthier for me and my family" is one of the main reasons why people buy organics, with 52% of customers citing it as a motivation – more than high animal welfare standards (34%) or it being more ethical (33%).

But bit by bit the case for the health benefits of organic food has been undermined. Just this week another review of the evidence has been published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which concluded that "there isn't much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you are an adult and making a decision solely on your health". This came as no surprise to Professor Alan Dangour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, whose own 2010 review found no significant differences in the nutrient content or health benefits of organic food.

All this simply reinforces the most comprehensive study to date, an independent 2009 report commissioned by the Food Standards Agency that surveyed over 50 years of evidence and concluded that "organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock products are broadly comparable in their nutrient content." Nor was there any evidence of improved health from the more limited exposure to pesticide residues. Some farming practices can result in lower nutritional content and potential health risks, but it is never a simple case of all non-organic methods being worse than organic ones. For example, grass-fed cattle have been shown to produce more nutritionally rich milk, but these herds may be organic or conventional. This is probably why the only significant difference this week's study found was a higher level of omega-3 fatty acid in organic milk.

The case for the health benefits of organics is so flimsy that the Soil Association has effectively been banned from making any claims for them. "Anything we say, we ASA-proof it now, absolutely," says Browning, referring to the need to avoid sanction by the Advertising Standards Authority.

So where does that leave us? I put it to Browning that the organic movement will probably continue to have an important role to play in the debate about the future of farming but right now it would be a distraction to make organics the centre of our discussion.

"It would be a distraction if we spent all our time debating whether certified organic or non-organic is the way forward," she replies. But she maintains it is "absolutely critical" that the organic movement "both continues to make progress and continues to really inform the whole of agriculture. Organic principles need to be at the heart of where we farm everywhere."

But what are those principles? The Soil Association identifies four: health, ecology, fairness and care. The trouble is that many farmers and consumers would affirm these principles without also agreeing that you have to farm organically to follow them. As Dominic Coyte of Borough Cheese Company tells me, although organics is "a totally laudable reaction to the obsessive use of chemicals, it's not in itself a green light for quality and best practice". The organic movement owns a very particular set of rules, not the fundamental principles that define good farming.

Browning argues that the Association needs to "let go of some of this in order that the rest of the world can take some ownership of it". This is the direction the association started to indicate in The Road To 2020, which advocated "increasing the number of non-organic farmers we work with", maintaining that its "future will be built on partnerships with other organisations and individuals who share our vision for the future of food, farming and land use".

Browning seems to accept that this will mean placing less emphasis on the importance of being organic per se. "Whether it's 5%, 2% or 50% in terms of certified organic product is not the issue. The issue is that you've got a bunch of people striving to do more with less and that is what organic is really about."

The organic movement has arguably achieved a great deal. On the biggest issues, it has really won the debate. Most people now accept that you can't just spray and inject your way to sustainable food production, that there is much to be gained from more integrated farming practices that deploy resources from the earth rather than from chemical factories. But as conventional farming adapts, the best way ahead becomes much less clear. If we want food that is good for humans, animals and the environment, the priority now is not to praise organics or to bury it, but to accept we must look beyond it.

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David Willetts told the universities conference that the London Met issue should not jeopardise the £8bn-a-year export earnings brought in by the 400,000 foreign students. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The universities minister, David Willetts, is to launch a global drive to "protect Britain's reputation" and spread the message that it remains open to students from overseas in the wake of the government's curbs on student visas.

He is also to set up a £2m hardship fund to help "legitimate overseas students" at London Metropolitan University, who face extra costs as a result of the home secretary's decision to strip it of its licence to sponsor overseas students.

But Willetts stopped short of demands from vice-chancellors to remove overseas students from the government's drive to reduce net migration to below 100,000 by the next election.

Instead, Willetts told a universities conference in Keele that the Office for National Statistics would publicise statistics that made clearer the separate contribution of overseas students to immigration and try to improve estimates how many go home at the end of their studies.

The university lecturers' union said it appeared the government was finally recognising the damage its student visa policy was doing to Britain's international reputation.

Willetts's olive branch to the higher education sector over the government's drive to curb numbers of students from overseas came as 21 September was fixed as the date for the high court to hearing for London Met's legal challenge to the revocation of its Home Office sponsorship licence.

The minister also suggested it was necessary for higher education to develop a longer protection scheme for foreign students – similar to the Abta guarantee when travel agents fail – should other universities face a similar situation.

Universities UK said it welcomed the setting up of the £2m London Met hardship fund and would take part in talks over a protection scheme. While it welcomed changes to the immigration figures to show what contribution students were making to reductions, it wanted the government to go further and remove students from the net migration target entirely.

The University and College Union's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "It appears the government is finally recognising the damage its student visa policy, coupled with threatening to deport thousands of fee-paying overseas students, is doing to our international reputation."

The National Union of Students said the immigration statistics already gave details of overseas student flows in and out of Britain, and criticised the £2m hardship fund as offering "scant relief" to students who faced an average bill of £4,610 each as a result of moving university.

Willetts told the universities conference that the London Met issue must not be allowed to jeopardise the success story of the 400,000 overseas students who bring in almost £8bn a year in export earnings. He said it was necessary to take short-term action "to protect our international reputation" beyond the London Met hardship fund and the mini-clearing operation that will start next Monday.

"We have already used our Foreign Office posts to signal that we remain open to overseas students," Willetts said, before announcing a joint publicity drive with Universities UK in key newspapers "in our target markets", explaining that overseas students are welcome in Britain and reminding them of what a great opportunity it is to study in the UK.

Willetts acknowledged that the public did not regard overseas students as immigrants and saw "someone coming to study for a time and then going back home as different from someone permanently coming to Britain as a migrant".

But the minister made clear that they would not be removed from the overall net migration count: "We will publish disaggregated figures. We will disaggregate the headline totals for net migration so that people can see the student element within that. We are not removing students from the totals. We are improving the quality of data on students leaving the country."

Home Office ministers argue that the international definition of an immigrant covers anyone who goes to a country for more than 12 months and that removing them from the net migration statistics would look like the government "fiddling the figures" to meet their 'below 100,000' target. The latest net migration figure shows that 216,000 more people to live in Britain in 2011 than emigrated abroad. Students accounted for 232,000 of the 566,000 who were classified as long-term immigrants to Britain in 2011.

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Officials are concerned more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease because the virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure. Photograph: EPA

Yosemite national park has doubled the scope of its hantavirus warning to 22,000 visitors who may have been exposed to the deadly mouse-borne disease, as the number of confirmed cases grew to eight and a third death was reported.

US officials recently issued a global alert, saying up to 10,000 people were thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after staying at the popular Curry Village lodging area between June and August. As many as 2,500 of those people live outside the US, health officials said.

Officials are concerned that more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease in the next month or so because the virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure.

The warning was expanded to about 12,000 additional visitors to the park's more remote High Sierra camps, after an eighth case of the illness was confirmed in a man who had stayed in tent cabins at three of those camps.

He had also had stayed in a tent cabin at the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and had camped in the wilderness – all locations in the park's high country, the Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.

His symptoms were so mild he never went to a hospital, but after hearing about the outbreak he was tested, and laboratory results confirmed on Thursday that he had been ill with the disease, Gediman said.

The seven other confirmed victims are all believed to have contracted the virus while staying in one or more of the 91 insulated "Signature" tent cabins in Curry Village, located at a lower-elevation area of the park.

The 91 Curry Village tent cabins were shut down after deer mice were found infesting the double walls of the structures.

Officials in Yosemite, a national park in California whose scenic vistas, hiking trails and wildlife attract about 4 million visitors a year, did not previously consider the High Sierra camps to be at risk of hantavirus.

Those camps will remain open, based on recommendations from public health officials, Gediman said, adding: "We do inspections and we try to keep the rodents out. It's impossible to say every tent cabin is rodent-proof."

He estimated that a few hundred notices were being sent to individuals who still had reservations to stay at the High Sierra camps before they close for the season on 17 September.

The expanded warning came as Yosemite announced a third person had died of the disease and the number of confirmed cases rose to eight, all of them among American visitors to the park.

Health officials in France were also investigating two suspected hantavirus cases there among people who may have been exposed while at Yosemite, according to an assessment by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Gediman identified the third fatality as a West Virginia resident who had contracted hantavirus while staying in Curry Village tent cabins in June. That person died at the end of July, and laboratory tests confirmed on Thursday the death was due to hantavirus, he said.

The two others who died were a man from northern California and a man from Pennsylvania.

The World Health Organisation issued a global alert this week over the cases of hantavirus linked to Yosemite, and advised travellers to avoid exposure to rodents.

The virus can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death. Early flu-like symptoms include headache, fever, muscle aches, shortness of breath and coughing.

There is no cure for the lung disease, which kills over a third of those infected, but early detection through blood tests greatly increases survival rates.

Hantavirus is carried in rodent faeces, urine and saliva that can mix with dust and be inhaled by humans, especially in small, confined spaces with poor ventilation. People can also become infected by eating contaminated food, touching tainted surfaces or being bitten by infected rodents.

The disease has never been known to be transmitted between humans.

Hantavirus was previously known to have infected only two Yosemite visitors, one in 2000 and another in 2010, both at higher elevations in the park.

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The Fuego volcano eruption has begun spewing lava and columns of ash into the air, and authorities have raised the red alert level in the area. Photograph: AFP/Johan Ordonez

A long-simmering volcano exploded into a series of powerful eruptions outside one of Guatemala's most famous tourist attractions on Thursday, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and prompting evacuation orders for more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities.

Guatemala's head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were ordered to leave some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of Antigua, home to 45,000 people. The ash was blowing south-southeast and authorities said the tourist center of the country was not currently in danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12 more hours.

The agency said the volcano spewed lava nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters) down slopes billowing with ash around Acatenango, a 12,346-foot-high (3,763-meter-high) volcano whose name translates as "Volcano of Fire."

"A paroxysm of an eruption is taking place, a great volcanic eruption, with strong explosions and columns of ash," said Gustavo Chicna, a volcanologist with the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology. He said cinders spewing from the volcano were settling a half-inch thick in some places.

He said extremely hot gases were also rolling down the sides of the volcano, which was almost entirely wreathed in ash and smoke. The emergency agency warned that flights through the area could be affected.

There was a red alert, the highest level, south and southeast of the mountain, where, Chicna said, "it's almost in total darkness."

He said ash was landing as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the volcano.

Teresa Marroquin, disaster coordinator for the Guatemalan Red Cross, said the organization had set up 10 emergency shelters and was sending hygiene kits and water.

"There are lots of respiratory problems and eye problems," she said.
Many of those living around the volcano are indigenous Kakchikeles people who live in relatively poor and isolated communities, and authorities said they expected to encounter difficulties in evacuating all the affected people from the area.

Officials in the Mexican state of Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala, said they were monitoring the situation in case winds drove ash toward Mexico.

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Finless porpoise in the aquarium of a conservation centre in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Photograph: Yangtze Finless Porpoise Conservation Society

It's been an hour and the group of volunteers aboard the rickety fishing boat are still yet to spot a Yangtze finless porpoise, known as jiangzhu or "river pig". Thirty years ago, when they numbered 2,000, the mammals could be seen from the shore here dancing on Dongting Lake in the sludge-coloured waves. Now there are about 85 jiangzhu here. As Xu Yaping, the patrol's chief, peers through the haze, and coal barges and dredgers churn the lake, the chance of encountering this ancient creature seems remote.

The jiangzhu's survival is not guaranteed. Since the official extinction of the baiji, a river dolphin, in 2007, the porpoise is the only cetacean inhabiting the Yangtze River and two connecting freshwater lakes, Dongting and Poyang, China's largest. It's estimated there are around 1,200 jiangzhu living in the wild – two-thirds less than a decade earlier. The species is decreasing at a rate of 6.4% a year, making it rarer than China's national treasure, the giant panda.

A spike in deaths this year is causing experts renewed anxiety. In April WWF China expressed "deep concern" over the deaths of 32 porpoise in 2012. At the current rate of decline, the jiangzhu is set to follow the baiji into extinction in 10-15 years.

In this undated photograph released by Yangtze Finless Porpoise Conservation Society, two finless porpoise are seen on the busy Dongting Lake in Hunan province, China. Photograph: Courtesy YFPCS

"Our children will benefit from the GDP we created and the buildings we built for them," says Xu Yaping, a journalist and jiangzhu activist who founded the Yangtze Finless Porpoise Conservation Society in Yueyang in January. "But how healthy is the environment we're leaving them? I can't fathom how we can let an animal as intelligent as the finless porpoise just disappear. Our grandchildren will shame us when they ask why."

That question lingers over the memory of the baiji. Once known as the "goddess of the Yangtze", the long-nosed freshwater dolphin – which lived on Earth for 25 million years – was declared extinct after a trawl of the Yangtze by an international team of scientists.

The reasons behind the baiji's extinction mirror those threatening the jiangzhu. Dongting, which is 880 square miles, is crowded with container ships, sand dredgers and speedboats. Propellers are often undetected by the jiangzhu, who use sonar to navigate the murky waters of the Yangtze River basin. Snaring and long-line fishing are in common use, as is the illegal practice of electrofishing, which claimed the lives of at least two porpoise this year, according to the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) in Wuhan.

A father with his son looks at a poster featuring finless porpoises and warning about river fish species depletion due to electro-fishing in Hunan province. Photograph: Courtesy of Yangtze Finless Porpoise Conservation Society

Food for the jiangzhu is becoming scarcer. Jiang Yong, head of WWF China in Changsha, says there are 40% fewer fish in the Yangtze than a decade ago. Sand dredging disturbs spawning ground, and the Three Gorges dam upriver adds to the decline of fish. Factory chimneys lining Dongting Lake are crowned with smoke clouds.

On the lake, a shout from He Daming, a volunteer, wakes up the patrol. Bobbing inky orbs in the distance announce a family of jiangzhou having breakfast, to the backdrop of a coal barge.

Each day Xu Yaping's team patrols the Yangtze, tracking illegal fishing practices. Educating residents through self-financed advertising is part of their campaign, as is sweetening local officials. But when Xu mentions the government from his desk in the Hunan Daily bureau, he breaks into a shout. "The jiangzhu here are disappearing at the fastest rate of the Yangtze basin," he says, "but Dongting still has no conservation centre. We've never had a penny of support, and are considered meddling. The officials say the country's development relies on putting people first. This kind of choplogic excuses their negligence."

In the observatory of the IHB's conservation centre in Wuhan, a jiangzhou presses its nose against the aquarium glass, following the finger of a keeper. Another blows bubbles, forming a ring of oxygenated pearls. It balances the ring on its nose, before whipping through the middle.

This graceful and highly intelligent animal is famed for its ugliness. According to legend, the baiji is the reincarnation of a young princess who jumped into the Yangtze to escape the clutches of a wealthy landowner. When a sudden wind capsized the landowner's boat he became a "river pig".

Wang Ding, a professor at IHB and China's leading jiangzhu expert, likens them to the girl next door. "The baiji was very beautiful but difficult to get close to," Wang says. "The porpoise likes to interact, to chat and play. It's a lovely animal." Wang, who is observing the seven porpoise living at the centre, says the jiangzhu is "strong". His team estimates they entered the Yangtze 100,000 years ago. Are human beings the reason this animal is nearly extinct? "Yes, that is the only reason actually," he says.

Yet Wang remains cautiously optimistic about the fate of the river pig. He's buoyed by the success of a conservation project at Tian-ezhou, a protected oxbow lake that was once part of the Yangtze. Five jiangzhu were introduced there in 1990; today there are 40.

"The attitude of both the public and government is changing," says Wang. "Now the government at least says, 'OK, let's talk about this', even if they don't do much." Conservation efforts should get a boost when the jiangzhu receives an expected and overdue upgrade to the first tier of endangered species (the list was drafted in 1989). In the second tier, bureaucracy often blocks local governments from reform. Wang says that sort of inaction will mean the jiangzhu is lost.

The thought is difficult to reconcile. As the keepers head upstairs, one jiangzhu remains hovering in the water, rotating its fins in response to the waves goodbye. As it dips its head for a moment it forms a suspended silver question mark, before pivoting to swim into the gloom.

• Additional reporting by Xia Keyu

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Angry protesters set fire to buildings at the Benghazi base of a militia blamed for the death of US ambassador Chris Stevens Link to this video

Militias blamed for the killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens have been forced out of Libya's second city, Benghazi, by popular protests.

At least 11 people were killed and 60 wounded as militiamen tried to defend their compounds against thousands of demonstrators protesting against extremism.

Saturday morning's rout followed a day of demonstrations on Friday against the militias, in particular Ansar al-Sharia, which has been blamed for the murder of the US ambassador and three of his colleagues.

The action against Ansar al-Sharia appeared to be part of a co-ordinated sweep of militia headquarters buildings by police, government troops and activists after a mass public demonstration against militia units on Friday.

Demonstrators also attacked compounds belonging to pro-government militias which may have contributed to the casualties.

Looters carried weapons out of the vacated Ansar al-Sharia military base as men clapped and chanted: "Say to Ansar al-Sharia, Benghazi will be your inferno."

A spokesman for the group said they left Benghazi to preserve security.

Chanting "Libya, Libya", "No more al-Qaida" and "The blood we shed for freedom shall not go in vain" hundreds of men waving swords and even a meat cleaver stormed Ansar al-Sharia's headquarters.

"After what happened at the American consulate, the people of Benghazi had enough of the extremists," one demonstrator, Hassan Ahmed, said. "They did not give allegiance to the army. So the people broke in and they fled."

Demonstrators pulled down militia flags and set a vehicle on fire inside what was once the base of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's security forces, who tried to put down the first protests that sparked last year's uprising.

"This place is like the Bastille. This is where Gaddafi controlled Libya from, and then Ansar al-Sharia took it over. This is a turning point for the people of Benghazi," said Ahmed.

Adusalam al-Tarhouni, a government worker who arrived with the first wave of protesters, said several pickup trucks with the group's fighters had initially confronted the protesters and opened fire. Two protesters were shot in the leg, he said.

"After that they got into their trucks and drove away," he said. Protesters had freed four prisoners found inside, he said.

As protesters left Ansar al-Sharia's headquarters, the crowd swelled, reaching thousands as it headed toward the Islamists' military base, which was shared with another militia group.

Protesters said the militiamen opened fire as they arrived and several people were wounded.

After the crowd entered that compound, Libyan army trucks sped away from the base carrying government troops cheering in victory and crying out: "God is greatest."

Vigilantes armed with machetes and clubs blocked the road leading away from the compound, stopping cars to prevent looters from driving off with heavy weapons.

"We went into the camp and we didn't find anyone. We just took these Kalashnikovs," said one youth, holding rifles.

The demonstrators also took over a compound belonging to the Abu Slim brigade and another Ansar al-Sharia compound.

The apparent defeat of Ansar al-Sharia across Benghazi and the huge outpouring of public support for the government marks an extraordinary transformation in a country where the authorities had seemed largely powerless to curb the influence of militia groups armed with heavy weapons.

Nevertheless, Ansar al-Sharia and other Islamist militia have bases elsewhere in eastern Libya, notably around the coastal city of Derna, known across the region as a major recruitment centre for fighters who joined the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

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In an early morning news conference in Mexico City, the man, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, who faces an array of charges in both countries, was marched before reporters by masked marine guards. A stocky man handcuffed in front and dressed in a checkered shirt and jeans and wearing a bulletproof vest, he looked sternly at the gathering, standing before a table covered with rifle parts, jewelry, a couple of gold-plated handguns and other goods seized during his arrest Wednesday evening.

José Luis Vergara, a marine spokesman reading a statement, said Mr. Costilla, 41, known as El Coss, was detained without any resistance by about 30 marines around 6 p.m. in Tampico in northeastern Tamaulipas State. Several other people detained with him were also shown to reporters, some of them with facial cuts and bruises.

The arrest gives Mexican forces a notable victory in their battle against drug-trafficking leaders, days ahead of Mexican Independence Day celebrations, and presents another blow to the Gulf Cartel, one of the three principal groups feeding rampant violence in the country.

Mr. Costilla has been wanted by the United States since 2002 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and threatening to assault and murder federal law enforcement agents, and his arrest sets up the possibility of an extradition. The agents, with the F.B.I. and the Drug Enforcement Administration, were surrounded and threatened by gunmen, including Mr. Costilla, in the border city of Matamoros in 1999, but were eventually let go, American officials have said.

Just last week, a man identified as another top leader of the gang, Mario Cárdenas Guillén, was detained, also in Tamaulipas, one of Mexico’s most violent states. He had assumed a leadership role after his brother was killed by Mexican forces in 2010, but Mr. Costilla was believed to be running the organization.

George W. Grayson, a professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a longtime researcher of the criminal groups, said the arrest demonstrated both the prowess of the Mexican marines — “they have first-rate intelligence, work closely with U.S. security agencies, and go out of their way to prevent leaks” — and the infighting in the Gulf Cartel.

Mr. Costilla, he said, was in the middle of a battle with other leaders to seize and solidify control of important cities in Tamaulipas.

This arrest, he said, is the most important takedown since Mexican marines killed Arturo Beltrán Leyva, chief of the Beltrán organization, in December 2009. That operation is also remembered for the killing of family members of a marine involved in the operation after his funeral.

Analysts have described the Gulf Cartel as somewhat weakened by a spinoff group, the Zetas, and the largest group, the Sinaloa Cartel, which have battled over turf and trafficking routes. The Zetas, too, are said to be split by factionalism.

Mexican and American drug agents believe that cutting off the heads of the organizations ultimately weakens them, but in many cases splinter groups have emerged. Violence as the new gangs and old ones fight it out, coupled with pressure from Mexican security forces, has led to more than 50,000 deaths, with some estimates far higher, in the last six years.

Mr. Costilla’s capture may help burnish the navy’s reputation after an embarrassment this summer.

In June, it said it had captured the “presumed son” of the most wanted drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, or Shorty, but in one of the government’s bigger public embarrassments, the authorities eventually conceded that it was not him.

As President Felipe Calderón’s six-year term draws to a close in December, there is heightened speculation that security forces will deliver him the capture of Mr. Guzmán as well. The military and the police have nearly caught him at least a few times, Mexican and American officials have said.

Tamaulipas also has been the focus of a political scandal, with a former governor and other officials under investigation over accusations of receiving money from drug traffickers. It became an issue in the July presidential election because the politicians under investigation belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the same as the victor, Enrique Peña Nieto, who had sought to portray the party as beyond its previous corruption and drug scandals.

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