MORELIA, Michoacán — An army officer and eight cartel gunmen died in southern Mexico as military forces tried to capture a top leader of Los Viagras cartel. The shootout, which also left several soldiers and police officers injured, is just one of many recent cases of extreme violence in the coastal state of Michoacán despite officials’ claims that the region is safe.

Breitbart News obtained exclusive cell phone video that Mexican military forces recovered from the body of a cartel gunman. The footage was recorded by a Los Viagras member who was pinned down during a recent shootout.

The shootout took place over the weekend in the town of Pizandaro, in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, where troops and police officers set up a checkpoint along the highway leading to Apatzingan. At the checkpoint, lawmen tried to stop a convoy of cartel gunmen escorting Rodolfo “El Tronado” (The Stoned One) Sierra Santana. Rather than stop, the gunmen began shooting and called for more help to allow a wounded Sierra Santana to escape. In order to keep additional law enforcement forces from moving to the scene of the battle, gunmen from Los Viagras hijacked numerous vehicles and parked them sideways along some of the key highways in the region.

After the battle, authorities recovered the bodies of eight cartel men and Mexican Army Lieutenant Colonel Jose Guadalupe Barrientos Ortiz. Mexico’s Defense Secretariat posted on social media about the death of the officer and extended condolences to his relatives.

The nearly captured Sierra Santana is the brother of Nicolas “El Gordo” Sierra Santa, the top leader of Los Viagras cartel or “La Nueva Familia Michoacana” and the drug lord who publicly claimed he colluded with the current state governor for his election.