Mexico City, Jun 6 (EFE).- Five men were killed in a shootout with federal security forces in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexican authorities said.
Federal forces came under attack Thursday in the municipality of Altamira while investigating a report that a group was blocking a stretch of the Tampico-El Mante highway, according to the Tamaulipas Coordination Group, a state-federal task force.
The federal forces arrived to find the cabs of at least two tractor-trailers in flames.
The gunmen started shooting at the federal contingent, who returned fire.
Once the shooting stopped, the federal forces found four gunmen dead inside a pickup truck. The body of the fifth attacker was discovered beneath a tractor-trailer caught up in the roadblock, the Coordination Group said in a statement.
The security forces also seized a grenade-launcher and two grenades, two assault rifles, a shotgun and ammunition.
The highway was cleared by around 5:00 p.m., a little more than two hours after the initial report of the roadblock.
Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has suffered for years from violence among rival drug cartels and between the gangs and security forces.
The Gulf drug cartel and the ultraviolent Los Zetas outfit are battling for control of drug trafficking in the state.
The Zetas, who are also involved in migrant-trafficking, extortion and kidnapping, are blamed for the August 2010 massacre of 72 undocumented immigrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.
Amid a recent increase in violence in the state, the Mexican government last month sent additional federal troops and police to Tamaulipas and vowed a "complete" purge of corrupt officers from state and local law enforcement agencies.
