Video shows Mexican mayor meeting with drug lord

The fugitive Gomez Martinez is thought to be the defacto leader of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel, the most powerful criminal organization in Michoacan state, which includes Lazaro Cardenas.

That city's mayor, Arquimides Oseguera, was arrested earlier this week on charges of kidnapping, extortion and criminal conspiracy, along with Lazaro Cardenas municipal treasurer Omar Alejandro Soto Gil, who also appears in the video.

The mayor and treasurer are seen listening to Gomez Martinez saying that the Templarios control Michoacan and urging them to join him in backing the congressional candidacy of a particular individual, whose name is not clearly audible.

The crime boss also refers to former Lazaro Cardenas mayor and federal lawmaker Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, signaling his intention to have the politician tracked down and killed.

Oseguera and Soto Gil are just the latest officials to be arrested in Michoacan.

Jesus Reyna, Michoacan's former government secretary, and Apatzingan Mayor Uriel Chavez were detained earlier.

Officials have suspected for some time that the Templarios cartel uses Lazaro Cardenas, one of Mexico's largest ports, to smuggle drugs and illegally mined minerals.

The federal government took over security at the port on Nov. 4 in response to allegations that port officials were on the payroll of drug traffickers.

Mexico's government deployed soldiers and police in Michoacan on Jan. 13 in an effort to end the wave of drug-related violence in the state almost a year after communities and businesspeople began organizing militias to battle the Templarios.

Federal security forces killed the Templarios cartel's two top leaders, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Enrique Plancarte Solis, in February and March, respectively.

Gomez Martinez is the only senior figure in the cartel who remains at large.