Security forces killed a leader of the Beltrán Leyva Organization last night during a gunfight in the city of Tepic, capital of Nayarit.

Juan Francisco Patrón Sánchez, known as “H2,” was killed by Navy personnel aboard a helicopter during an air and land operation by the Army and Navy and Federal Police in the city’s up-scale Lindavista neighborhood.

Seven gunmen who were with the cartel boss were also killed.

Patrón Sánchez is presumed responsible for killing five military personnel in Culiacán last September.

He and an associate are believed to have taken control of the Beltrán Leyva cartel after the capture of Héctor Beltrán Leyva in San Miguel de Allende in 2014.

Also yesterday, the former sister-in-law of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, ex-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was gunned down and killed in Zapopan, Jalisco.

Idalia Romelia Salazar was killed as she left a dentist’s office. Her sister, Alejandrina Salazar, was Guzmán’s first wife and mother of four of his children.

Romelia was investigated in 1998 for laundering 207 million pesos for the Sinaloa Cartel, and more recently was in the spotlight for various banking transactions totaling 200 million pesos and for purchasing 17 luxury vehicles and two properties in Jalisco.

She operated a sports clothing business, importing products from Colombia, according to authorities.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp), Infobae (sp)