TIJUANA -- A Mexican hit man who calls himself "The Soupmaker" has revealed how he dumped 300 bodies in vats of acid over the past decade to dispose of their remains for a drug trafficking cartel.

"They brought me the bodies, about 300 over the last nine to 10 years," Santiago Meza Lopez, 45, told reporters Friday a day after his capture by the army.

Meza Lopez said he had been paid some $600 a week for his work by drug boss, Eduardo Garcia Simental. He was arrested Thursday in Tijuana on the border with California, and is among the FBI's most wanted men.

"I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims," Meza Lopez added.

In 2008, more than 5,300 people died violent deaths connected to cartel activities, with Mexican authorities having deployed some 36,000 police and troops to fight the drug traffickers.