MORELIA, Mexico – The former leader of the Caballeros Templarios cartel was arrested Wednesday on drug charges by the security forces following a shootout in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, officials said.

Ignacio Renteria Andrade, who was the subject of a reward totaling 10 million pesos (nearly $550,000), was captured in Los Olivos, a town located between the cities of La Huacana and Nueva Italia, Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles said in a Twitter post.

Renteria was with one of his hitmen, identified as Damian Rubio Ruiz, who ran drug smuggling operations in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, at the time of his capture, an army spokesman told EFE.

Army troops supported by Michoacan state police carried out the operation that led to Renteria’s arrest.

Renteria and Rubio engaged the security forces in a shootout, wounding two soldiers, the army spokesman said, adding that the two suspects were also wounded.

Renteria ran the Caballeros Templarios’s operations in La Huacana, reporting to Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Enrique Plancarte Soles, who were both killed by federal security forces.

The suspect at one time worked for Dionisio Loya Plancarte and Servando Gomez Martinez, now both in prison.

In the wake of the killings and arrests of the cartel’s bosses, Renteria created his own criminal organization, waging a turf war with the Jalisco Nueva Generacion, H-3, La Nueva Familia Michoacana and Los Viagras cartels.

The Caballeros Templarios cartel was created by former members of the Familia Michoacana criminal organization in December 2010.