MEXICO CITY - Mexican police captured five members of a drug trafficking ring, including two of its leaders, in the north, local authorities said Wednesday.

The two suspected ring leaders are 25-year-old Juan David Alejandro Mendez Arizpe and 18-year-old Sergio Gael Rosales Palacios. They confessed to kidnapping and murdering several members of rival criminal gangs in Durango and claimed to have worked for Mexico's most-wanted drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The arrests occurred in the city of Laredo in the northern Durango state after two federal policemen were attacked on the Matamoros-Mazatlan highway, leading police to launch a blanket search operation in the area.

During the operation, police seized three rifles, 11 ammunition clips of different calibers, 197 cartridges, a bullet-proof vest and four vehicles.

According to official figures, 47,579 people have been arrested in anti-narcotics operations from December 2006 to July 2012.