A top drug cartel leader may have been killed in clashes with police this week, a Mexican government spokesman said.
Fighting between federal authorities and suspected members of Mexico's La Familia cartel began Wednesday in the central Mexican state of Michoacan, national security spokesman Alejandro Poire told reporters late Thursday. A day later, an operation to find those responsible continued, he said.
Poire said unconfirmed preliminary reports indicate that the cartel "has sustained significant losses, including possibly the death of one of those leaders."
Two minors were killed during the operation when gunmen shot at civilian cars and later used the vehicles as barricades, Poire said. Nearby, suspected members of the cartel set trucks and buses ablaze on highways to block approaching federal police.
A federal police officer was also among those killed in the clashes, police spokesman Jose Ramon Salinas said.