Mexican police have arrested one of the US Marshals Service's most-wanted fugitives after 24 years on the run.

Suspect Vincent Legrend Walters is wanted in San Diego, California, on murder charges in the 1988 killing of a woman kidnapped as part of a drug deal.

He also faces weapons and drug charges and is on the service's list of 15 most wanted fugitives.

The Marshals Service said Walters had been living in Cancun under the assumed name of Oscar Rivera and was working at Cancun international airport. It said he was arrested on Saturday and had been taken to Mexico City to await extradition procedures.

An airport official said Walters was not an airport employee but rather had worked for a resort selling time-share holiday packages by staffing an information booth at the terminal for about a decade. Outside staffers at such booths are usually not subject to the same security reviews as airport employees.

Although Walters used an assumed name, the Marshals Service said he "had boasted to people that he was a fugitive from San Diego and wanted by the US Marshals Service".

Walters allegedly bought chemicals to make methamphetamines from undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents in 1988. An associate handed over the finished meth to a local dealer to hold. The dealer passed them on to yet another man.

When Walters wanted the drugs back, he kidnapped the dealer who had been holding the meth, his friend and the friend's girlfriend, offering the hostages in exchange for the return of the drugs.

Two hostages were released but the girlfriend died because she had been gagged with a chemical-soaked rag.

Walter's brother Martin was convicted in the kidnapping and murder and is serving 25 years to life in prison.

"Thanks to hard work ... we were able to bring Walters in to face the consequences ... ," said David Harlow, assistant director of the Marshals Service's Investigative Operations Division.

- AP