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MEXICO CITY, July 1-- A shootout between police and gunmen in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Friday evening left 19 gang members dead and five policemen injured, three severely. Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa's undersecretary for public security, told a press conference on Saturday that on Friday evening, a group of armed men attacked a police convoy near the town of Villa Union, after they had already shot dead two members of a rival gang. The police responded to the attack and began a car chase to arrest the gang members who were aboard four vehicles. The chase ended in Aguaje de Castilla, 8 km from Villa Union, when the vehicles were caught and 19 gang members were shot dead. The shootout also left five police officers wounded, three of them severely, Castaneda said. The police also seized around 20 weapons as well as the vehicles, he added. Police patrols are active around the area to guarantee security for the local population. Sinaloa's prosecutor-general said on Saturday that an investigation had been opened into the shootout. Sinaloa is one of Mexico's most violent states, and is the birthplace of the eponymous Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera. However, since Guzman was captured and extradited to the United States, violence has been on the rise in Sinaloa as drug gangs compete to take over the territory he left behind. | 
