Mexico City, September 23 (teleSUR-RHC)-- In the small, usually quiet town of San Antonio Matute, in the northern Mexican state of Jalisco, armed forces clashed with heavily armed drug gang members, with a death toll between five and eight, according to local officials and conflicting news reports.

Witnesses told reporters that a “war” broke out at about 7:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday and lasted for hours as federal forces opened fire on alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.
 
Over 50 troops apparently stormed a property where a group of criminals were gathered.  The soldiers were received with bullets and then the gun battle erupted.  Apparently, the fighting between federal forces and the drug gang continued on hours later in a nearby town.  No details regarding the second scene of the conflict have been reported.

The shootout prompted the University of Guadalajara, located about three miles away from where the armed confrontation took place, to suspend classes.  

According to La Jornada, the precise number of deaths could not be corroborated because federal forces had the whole area cordoned off.  Unconfirmed reports indicate that one of the cartel's leaders, Juan Carlos Marquez, better known as “El Duende” or “The Dwarf,” was gunned down in the shootout.
     
Milenio newspaper, however, said El Duende was detained along with various other of his associates and has since been taken to Mexico City.
  
State officials said that in fact the objective of the operation was to detain El Duende, at which point his bodyguards attempted to prevent the arrest from taking place.

Some locals in Ameca said they were tired of announcements made by the government regarding the arrest of local drug leaders.