An alleged regional leader of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel and 12 accomplices have been killed in a clash with Mexican marines who poured gunfire into a house from a helicopter-mounted machine gun.
The federal Interior Department said via Twitter that Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez headed the cartel's operations in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit and in the southern part of Jalisco state. The Navy official identified the dead capo by the criminal nickname "H2."
A Mexican Navy official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said Friday that Patron's group had opened fire . . .
