Only a short time after government intervention diffused an explosive situation in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, a new alliance threatens to reignite the simmering powder keg.

The Knights Templar, the indigenous drug cartel that sprang from the fragments of La Familia Micoacana and most recently has been pushed back on its heels by the rise of armed vigilante groups, is said to be cultivating an alliance with the Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO), a rival cartel that has until recently only existed on the fringe of territories held by other cartels working in the western side of Mexico.

While the BLO was, for a time, one of the largest and most powerful cartels in Mexico, some government authorities have declared the cartel "dead and disbanded." However, even recently, the BLO has maintained some operational authority over small areas, mostly pressed against the seaboard of area controlled by the Sinaloa cartel. They are also rumored to have loose ties with Los Zetas.

"The Beltran Leyva Organization provides another example of the regionalization of Mexican organized crime," Stratfor Global Intelligence reported. "It has become an umbrella of autonomous, and in some cases conflicting, groups. Many of the groups that emerged from it control specific geographic areas and fight among each other largely in isolation from the conflict between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation. "

The remnants of the BLO, combined with the Knights Templar, though damaged from recent run-ins with the government and "autodefensas" militias in Tierra Caliente, could still have the makings of an all-new, dark alliance that could threaten to shake the tenuous calm that has been established in Michoacan.

Authorities in Mexico say they have found evidence of a developing alliance between the Knights Templar and the BLO, Tierra de Narco reported.

Agents of the two groups were allegedly meeting in Mexico City in January when they were arrested by Mexican Marines. The meetings were said to be aimed at consolidating an agreement in which the BLO, along with the Knights Templar, would maintain control of Michoacan.