MEXICO CITY (AP):

Authorities have captured the "intellectual author" of an ambush that killed five federal police officers in March, Mexico's national security commissioner said yesterday.

Renato Sales Heredia announced that federal authorities arrested 27-year-old Javier Guerrero Covarrubias, the chief of gunmen for a drug cartel he did not name.

Officials previously blamed the Jalisco New Generation cartel for the March 19 attack that left 10 dead in Ocotlan, Jalisco.

That attack was followed by another ambush that killed 15 state police officers and a rocket-propelled grenade attack that downed an army helicopter killing 10.

When federal police attacked a ranch where the gang allegedly was hiding out in May, 43 were killed.

Sales said Guerrero Covarrubias was captured without a shot being fired in Zapotlan, Jalisco.

Also yesterday, authorities in Veracruz state reported that three police officers were killed and another seriously wounded in an ambush.

A government statement said armed men travelling in a truck attacked the agents as they were patrolling a highway in the northern part of the state.