The mayor of the city of Chinameca was arrested along with several suspected members of the Los Zetas drug cartel in the Gulf state of Veracruz, the Mexican Defense Secretariat said.

Martin Padua Zuñiga, a member of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, was detained early Wednesday at a house where several gunmen had taken shelter during a shootout with army troops, the secretariat said in a statement.

The house is in the Centro district of Minatitlan, a city in southern Veracruz.