Guerrero state police officers were outnumbered Tuesday when a gang of armed men forced them to release two suspects in custody.

The 12 state police officers were traveling on the Chichihualco-Chilpancingo highway when they saw two armed men in a pickup truck whom they ordered to stop.

However, the men ignored the officers and fled. 

But the two were arrested after a chase and identified themselves as members of the La Sierra and the Los Tlacos cartels. However, they didn’t remain in custody for long.

On the way to Chilpancingo, the officers were intercepted by around 100 men in some 50 vehicles, who surrounded and threatened them.

The police returned the suspects, their weapons and the pickup truck to the gang. 

A police report identified the arrested men as members of the La Sierra cartel. 

La Sierra is in a territorial battle with Los Tlacos to grow and transport opium.  

The two cartels have battled for years, provoking terror, deaths, kidnappings and displacing hundreds of people in the Guerrero Sierra, the newspaper Reforma reported.

With reports from Reforma and Novedades Acapulco