MEXICO CITY, Aug 29 (Reuters) - A senior member of Mexico's powerful Gulf Cartel drug gang was arrested at a swanky steakhouse in the capital, the state news agency reported on Wednesday.

Mexican soldiers and elite police apprehended Juan Carlos de la Cruz, known as "The JC", with four Colombians and three alleged hitmen in Mexico City on Tuesday at an Argentine steak restaurant popular with rich Mexicans and visiting foreign businessmen, the agency said.

Mexico's attorney general's office confirmed a bust happened but would not identify the people arrested.

Some 1,600 people have been killed so far this year in a turf war between the Gulf Cartel, which dominates drug smuggling routes on Mexico's Atlantic coast, and the powerful Sinaloa gang on the Pacific coast.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a military-backed assault on the gangs, which channel South American cocaine into the United States, shortly after taking office last year.

Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas was extradited to the United States earlier this year. Last week, police arrested a senior member of the Sinaloa gang and 10 other drug smugglers in the northern city of Hermosillo.

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