Mexico City, Mexico - Mexican soldiers killed an accused drug cartel leader with a $3 million US bounty placed on his head, the government announced on Tuesday.

The suspect, 39-year-old Luis Enrique Barragan, was a leader of a group called Cartel de Los Reyes, a faction of a larger organization called Carteles Unidos.

The US has classified this latter coalition of cartels as a foreign terrorist group.

Barragan and an associate opened fire on soldiers and National Guards in the town of Tocumbo in western Michoacan state and died in the clash, said Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch.

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Barragan was a leader of an extortion ring targeting avocado farmers in Michoacan, Garcia Harfuch said in a social media post.

A US State Department web page on Barragan and the bounty for his capture says he was indicted in Washington in 2023 on drug conspiracy and firearms offenses.

The page describes Barragan as "a well-known sicario and combat leader" who used proceeds from the sale of cocaine, fentanyl, and other drugs in the US to buy weapons for fighting a rival cartel that moved into Michoacán, called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

A "sicario" is a hit man.