On Friday in the Mexican state of Jalisco at least seven people were killed during a military operation that was meant to target an unnamed drug cartel.

During the operation suspected cartel members blocked buses and trucks in an effort to cut off key highways in the state capital of Guadalajara as well as other cities.

As reported by the Associated Press, officials announced that 11 banks and five gas stations were firebombed at almost the same time. The initial attack occurred when gunmen fired on a military helicopter. In the process three soldiers were killed and the helicopter, which was participating in the anti-cartel offensive called “Operation Jalisco,” was forced to make an emergency landing around 150 miles southwest of Guadalajara.

A defense ministry statement read that ten soldiers as well as two federal police officers were injured and that three soldiers were missing.

At an afternoon news conference, the governor of Jalisco, Aristoteles Sandoval, contextualized the violence around the state by describing it as a reaction to the anti-cartel operation, which was meant to "get to the bottom of and to be able to arrest all the leaders of this cartel, of this organization."

Sandoval stated that “Operation Jalisco” was an attempt to arrest all members of the cartel.

Although Sandoval did not name the drug cartel, authorities have been tied up with an escalating battle between the Jalisco New Generation cartel, a group which came about in 2010.

According to an article in Fusion, the Jalisco New Generation has profited primarily from the production of methamphetamine and marijuana, while benefiting as well from kidnappings and the South American cocaine trade.

In April cartel gunmen murdered 15 state police officers in an ambush that is considered to be the single bloodiest attack on Mexican authorities in recent times.