Mexican authorities on Friday arrested one of the most well-known vigilantes in the ongoing fight against the cartels, Reuters has reported.

Jose Mireles, a doctor turned vigilante fighter, was detained for allegedly carrying illegal guns, federal government commissioner Alfredo Castillo, of Mexico's Michoacan state, told Milenio TV, according to Reuters.

Mireles and 82 others were arrested Friday in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas on charges of carrying illegal weapons. Castillo said they were planning to travel to the state capital of Morelia, Reuters reported.

Michoacan, on Mexico's west coast, is a high-traffic area for getting drugs into the United States, according to Yahoo News, which reports that the Knights Templar cartel controlled the state until civilians complained of police incompetence and corruption and challenged the cartel in early 2013. Mireles is one of their leaders.

In May, Mireles was ousted from the Michoacan militias for making public statements without consent, according to Yahoo. He hadn't been active since, until the day before he was arrested.

The government seemed to accept the vigilante uprising in 2013, but this year, Mexican authorities formed rural police forces to adopt the fighters and said anyone found carrying illegal weapons would be arrested, according to Reuters.

The vigilantes say they have up to 20,000 members and 3,300 signed up to join the rural police force, Yahoo reported.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in January sent in military troops to quell the violence in Michoacan, Reuters reported. Since the military came in, troops have caught and killed several Knights Templar leaders.

More than 85,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderon sent the army out to fight cartels, Reuters reported.