MEXICO CITY – Eight suspected members of the La Familia Michoacana crime organization were arrested in the Mexico City metropolitan area, where they had a large quantity of weapons, the Public Safety Secretariat said.

Hector Manuel Oyarzabal Hernandez, a La Familia Michoacana member, and seven accomplices were arrested Friday by federal police, the secretariat said.

Oyarzabal handled drug sales for the criminal organization in the cities of Ixtapaluca, Chalco, Valle de Chalco and Ozumba, all in the southern section of the Mexico City metro area.

Oyarzabal’s cell was “allegedly responsible for kidnapping and extorting money from businessmen in the area,” the Public Safety Secretariat said.

The suspects were arrested in Chalco’s Casco San Juan neighborhood, where authorities were tipped off to “the presence of armed people,” the secretariat said, adding that the operation was completed “without one shot being fired.”

Marco Vinicio Diaz Ramirez, 31, a suspected hitman who sold drugs in Chalco, and Rogelio Andres Peñaloza Solorzano, 36, accused of peddling drugs at the retail level in Ixtapaluca, were arrested along with Oyarzabal.

Reyes Quiroz Miranda, 34, suspected of being responsible for recruiting new drug salesmen and selecting sales sites, Ignacio Rodriguez Velazquez, 36, Jose Camacho Solorio, 49, Galberto Perez Sanchez, 36, and Cristobal Espejel Soto, 22, were also detained.

Rodriguez Velazquez, Camacho Solorio, Perez Sanchez and Espejel Soto allegedly worked as hitmen for the criminal organization.

Federal police seized five AK-47 assault rifles, three AR-15 rifles, three .38-caliber revolvers and several other weapons from the suspects.

Two motorcycles, three SUVs, two automobiles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition belonging to the suspects were also confiscated.

Mexican security forces have stepped up their operations against La Familia Michoacana since the discovery on July 13 of the bodies of 12 federal police officers.

The killings were apparently a reprisal for the arrest on July 11 of a leading La Familia Michoacana figure, Arnoldo Rueda Medina.

More than 5,000 federal police have been deployed in Michoacan state along with army troops to bolster security.

La Familia Michoacana and the Gulf cartel have been fighting for control of Michoacan.

The state is strategically located on the Pacific coast, giving drug traffickers access to routes for smuggling drugs into the United States, and it is also one of Mexico’s main producers of marijuana, poppies and synthetic drugs.