A mayor in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan was detained for allegedly ordering the killing of a friend and extorting her employees and street vendors in her city on behalf of a drug cartel, authorities said.

Mexico has effectively legalised the country’s growing “self-defence” groups as security forces captured one of the four top leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel, which vigilante groups have been fighting for the last year.

A CULT-LIKE drug cartel that challenged a rival gang by rolling five severed heads onto a disco dance floor in western Mexico was so divided and cash-strapped of late that it sought to form an alliance with that gang, police officials have confirmed.