MEXICO CITY

 At least 42 people, including two police officers were killed in a clash between Mexican federal forces and organized crime members in the western state of Michoacan, authorities said Friday.

The shootout occurred in the municipality of Tanhuato. Gov. Salvador Jara of Michoacan state told a local radio station that the gunfight began after police intercepted a suspicious vehicle on a highway.

“Many people shot at the police officers' vehicles”, he said, without specifying if the gunmen were gang members.

It all took place along the border between the Michoacan and Jalisco where the Jalisco New Generation cartel operates.

President Enrique Pena Nieto in April launched Operation Jalisco in an effort to quell the wave of violence in the state.

The top priority of the operation led by Mexican forces is to capture the head of the cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantez but so far those attempts have failed to bring in the man known as “El Mencho”.

The Jalisco New Generation responded to the government action with the murder of at least 20 police officers in Jalisco in April.

And several clashes between federal police, soldiers and members of the cartel on May 1 left at least 15 police officers dead.

That same day, gunmen also shot down a military chopper in the Villa Purificada municipality that killed eight soldiers and one police officer.

Although relatively new, the Jalisco New Generation is considered one of the fastest-growing criminal organizations in Mexico. 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers the cartel the most important and most dangerous in Mexico.