Gangs block roads with burning cars in western Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Gangs have blocked roads with burning vehicles in the western Mexico state of Michoacan.

The scenes are reminiscent of a 2013-2014 fight between vigilantes and drug cartels in Michoacan.

The state police department said Wednesday at least three blockades using stolen vehicles were reported around the city of Apatzingan.

Earlier, police said the roadblocks were a reaction by criminal groups to the arrest of a high-profile criminal suspect in the nearby town of Buenavista on Tuesday.

The state government said police and soldiers had been sent to patrol the area.

Self-styled “self-defense” vigilante groups sprang up in 2013 to run the feared Knights Templar cartel out of Michoacan. But since then other gangs have sprung up or moved in.