ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />STORY: A group of masked vigilantes seized the small town of Nueva Italia in the western Mexican state of Michoacan after clashing with alleged members of a drug cartel.<br/> <br />About 100 men, many armed with high-powered rifles, barreled into the town on Sunday in a convoy of pickup trucks to declare the area liberated from the feared Knights Templar cartel that controls much of Michoacan.<br/> <br />Television images show the vigilantes taking cover behind food stalls, vehicles and park benches, from exchanges of fire with alleged members of the drug cartel as a helicopter circled overhead.<br/> <br />The video also shows an injured vigilante being helped by his colleagues.<br/> <br />The vigilante group, or self-defense group, also were reported to have disarmed local policemen and taken over the town's police station.<br/> <br />Masked groups of vigilantes took control in more than a dozen rural communities in 2013, claiming the government was failing to stop gang
