Jalisco Nueva Generación, a new drug cartel whose power is rapidly increasing in western Mexico, on Saturday killed seven people and forced down a military helicopter, the Associated Press reported.

The violence was seen as a response to a campaign security forces launched against the criminal group on Friday. Over the weekend, gunmen set fire to cars, buses, banks and gas stations and exchanged bullets with soldiers and police.

Jalisco was relatively calm on Sunday, but authorities remained on alert in and around Guadalajara, the state's capital, the newswire detailed. Police were heavily patrolling the city, and fewer people than usual were seen in the streets.

Noticieros Televisa dubbed Jalisco Nueva Generación "Mexico's most powerful and most dangerous cartel," adding the organization is controlled by the González Valencia brothers. In addition to Jalisco, the cartel's operations are concentrated in the states of Colima, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Guerrero, the current-events broadcaster said.

The cartel's head, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho," is one of Mexico's richest drug lords, José Reveles, author of several books on drug trafficking, told the AP. Cervantes' operations include the trafficking of narcotics to locations across Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa, Reveles added.

Jalisco Nueva Generación "is the most global of the Mexican criminal organizations," El Universal explained.

"Unlike its competitors, this network did not waste its efforts competing for the trafficking routes that cross the border between Mexico and the United States. The (U.S. market) is not the one it is most interested in," the newspaper added.

Nevertheless, it is critical that the government act decisively against the organization, which in April ambushed a Jalisco police convoy and killed 15 officers, Reveles told the AP.

"Everything points to an increase in violence because there hasn't been a cartel this strong in the state since the 1980s," he said.

Jalisco State Prosecutor Luis Carlos Najera, meanwhile, confirmed a minor outburst of violence Saturday in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, where two cars and a business were burned.

"If the operatives continue, the same thing could happen all over again," Najera warned.