13 suspected drug cartel members killed in shootout with Mexican police

Thirteen alleged drug cartel members were gunned down in a shootout with Mexican police on Monday afternoon in the violence-plagued northwestern state of Sinaloa, according to reports and authorities.

Four people were arrested in addition to those killed after authorities were ambushed by an armed group that was hiding under a bridge in the town of La Brecha, Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said in a post on X.

After the shootout, nine individuals kidnapped by the gang were freed, Harfuch said.

Several vehicles, weapons, and tactical equipment belonging to the members were also secured by police, authorities added.

Sinaloa has been rocked by violence since two warring gangs, Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, began fighting over strategic drug trafficking routes in the region, security sources previously told The Post.

The cartel’s internal war was triggered by the dramatic kidnapping of one of the group’s leaders by the son of infamous narco boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The kidnapped man was handed over to US authorities in a private plane.

The mayhem, which began over a year ago, has left at least 1,700 people dead, 57 of them minors, and nearly 2,000 missing, CBS reported.

In late June, twenty bodies were discovered — including four decapitated corpses hanging from a bridge near a plastic bag of human heads — after a bloody day of cartel violence near Culiacán, the largest city in Sinaloa state.

In September, ten people were found dead, including bodies found creepily in sombreros and with pizza slices pegged into them with knives, the outlet previously reported.

Authorities have since tried to wrangle skyrocketing crime in the state.

With Post wires