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The Houston Chronicle has filed a motion to unseal and publish records in a criminal case filed against jailed Gulf Cartel Leader Osiel Cardenas.

Court records show the newspaper filed the motion before U.S. District Court Judge Hilda Tagle in Brownsville on Tuesday.

The Houston Chronicle alleges that numerous on-the-record filings in Cardenas' case have been kept sealed on the federal government’s court record system PACER.

Court records show that the newspaper has been battling the sealing of records in Cardenas’ case since October.

The newspaper is requesting that a federal judge order transcripts and records that are cleared by prosecutors and defense attorneys to be unsealed and placed on-line.

Attorneys for the Houston Chronicle could not be immediately reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas in Houston said prosecutors would file a response in court in due course, should one be required.

A federal grand jury from Brownsville indicted the feared cartel leader for drugs, money laundering and obstructing justice back in a March 2000.

Cardenas was captured in 2003 after a shootout with Mexican troops across the border in Matamoros.

He was later extradited to the United States in 2007 but his case was transferred from Brownsville to Houston for security reasons.

If convicted, Cardenas could face up to life in prison and up to $4 million dollars in fines for some of the charges.