LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Coronel, a reputed founder of Mexico's methamphetamine trade, was gunned down trying to escape soldiers in the western city of Guadalajara. Authorities said he fired on soldiers as the troops closed in.

Coronel was a close associate of Mexico's most wanted man, Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and was No. 3 in the organization after Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

"Nacho Coronel tried to escape and fired on military personnel, killing one soldier and wounding another," Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas says. "Responding to the attack, this 'capo' died."

The raid "significantly affects the operational capacity and drug distribution of the organization run by Guzman," Villegas added.

The news came at a time amidst mounting criticism that Calderon's administration appeared to be favoring the Sinaloa cartel - and not hitting it as hard as other drug gangs.

President Calderon has hotly denied these allegations, along with his top law enforcement officials, who point to the 2009 arrest of Vicente "El Vicentillo" Zambada - the son of Ismael Zambada - as proof they were going after the gang.

More significantly, Coronel's death was also the biggest strike against Mexican cartels in general since drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva and six of his bodyguards were killed in a Dec. 16 raid by Mexican marines in the central city of Cuernavaca.

The 56-year-old Coronel was believed to be "the forerunner in producing massive amounts of methamphetamine in clandestine laboratories in Mexico, then smuggling it into the U.S.," according to the FBI, which offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.