Top drug cartel lieutenant shot dead in western Mexico

A suspected lieutenant of the Beltran Leyva cartel was shot dead by Mexican army troops in the western state of Nayarit, local media reported on Saturday.

The alleged cartel leader, Daniel Isaac Silva Garate, known as "El H9," was located by marines and agents of the Nayarit prosecutor-general's office on Friday night, as he travelled in a car with another man through the community of El Ahuacate.

Silva Garate was killed in the car during the shootout in a village near the city of Tepic, while his suspected accomplice managed to escape, the news website Nayarit en Linea reported, citing sources in the prosecutor-general's office. The news was also confirmed by the state government of Nayarit.

The website added that the search for El H9 had begun on Saturday evening as soldiers searched a hotel and various houses in Tepic, the state capital.

Silva Garate was thought to belong to a group within the cartel, led by Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez,"El H2," who ran the cartel's operations in Nayarit and Sinaloa. Patron Sanchez was shot dead by soldiers on Feb. 9 in Tepic.

These deaths follow a series of shootouts between members of the Beltran Leyva cartel and armed forces, which have left at least 11 other criminals dead. Endit