shootout between enforcers from rival criminal organizations in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas left 10 dead, officials told the media.

The two-hour clash in the town of Florencia de Benito Juarez reportedly pitted gunmen from the Los Zetas gang against the United Cartels, an alliance of the Sinaloa, La Resistencia and La Familia Michoacana drug mobs.

No civilians in Florencia de Benito Juarez – where the criminals abandoned 11 automobiles, including six armored vehicles – were harmed in the gun battle, the Zacatecas government said in a statement Friday.

Authorities also confiscated an AK-47 assault rifle, a 40 mm grenade, a fragmentation grenade, nearly 200 ammunition clips and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at the scene, the statement said.

None of the victims has been identified thus far, the state government said.

Florencia de Benito Juarez is located in the southernmost part of Zacatecas, an area that has seen a recent uptick in drug-gang turf battles.

The government of Zacatecas asked the federal government late last year to expand the presence of federal forces in Zacatecas due to the growing presence of drug traffickers, state Attorney General Arturo Nahle said earlier this year.

Elsewhere, at least five gunmen were killed in a clash between suspected cartel hit men and federal and state forces early Saturday in the eastern town of Boca del Rio, Veracruz state Gov. Javier Duarte said on Twitter.

The Los Zetas organization is the dominant criminal outfit in Veracruz, although the Gulf cartel also has a presence in that state.

Those organizations have fought a fierce turf battle in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, prompting President Felipe Calderon’s government to bolster the presence of army soldiers and marines in that key drug-smuggling corridor.

Conflict among rival drug cartels and between criminals and the security forces has claimed 40,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006, when Calderon militarized the struggle against the drug trade shortly after taking office.

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