Mexican police shoot dead two drug cartel leaders

Mexican security forces shot dead two suspected drug cartel leaders early Saturday in different clashes in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, the state government announced.

Tamaulipas' security secretariat wrote on Twitter that a presumed leader of the Gulf Cartel, Julian Loisa Salinas, alias "El Comandante Toro," was killed in a shootout in the city of Reynosa.

Loisa Salinas had been one of the most sought after drug dealers in Mexico as the government have labelled the Gulf Cartel as one of the main actors of violence in Reynosa, a border city with the U.S.

According to the state government, accomplices of the drug lord set fire to tyres and vehicles to create a distraction allowing them to flee.

Later, federal forces shot dead Francisco "Pancho" Carreon during a firefight near Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas.

Carreon was a senior figure in the cartel of Los Zetas, a former ally and later bitter rival of the Gulf Cartel, who was also considered to be a key objective for authorities.

The Twitter account confirmed that their deaths were part of a campaign against organized crime.

Tamaulipas has been racked with regular violence between the Gulf and Zetas cartels, who broke their alliance in 2010 and now fight for control of the flow of drugs across the state to the U.S. Enditem