A reporter and photographer from the south-eastern Mexican state of Veracruz is missing.

Miguel Morales Estrada has not been seen for a week in the embattled city of Poza Rica, a town largely controlled by the Zetas drug cartel. Estrada was a freelancer for three different news outlets in the southern city. He is the third journalist reported missing in the last few months in areas that have seen confrontation between the Zetas and other drug cartels. The other two, Federico Manuel Garcia Contreras and Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales, both disappeared in June in the cities of San Luis Potosi and Taumalipas, also cities where the Zetas are battling for control with other cartels.

According to newspaper accounts, Morales was last seen at Diario de Poza Rica, one of the newspapers where he worked, on 19 July where he is said to have had to leave the city to take care of a personal problem. His wife reported his disappearance on 23 July.

Poza Rica has seen a lot of cartel violence since 2007, when residents reported the arrival of armed men dressed in black, whom they identified as the Zetas. Last year, police detained El Indio, a top commander in the town, and most recently a local businessman was found to have laundered money with racing horses for the same cartel.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for reporters in the world, with Veracruz being the most dangerous state. In May the bodies of three Veracruz photographers were found dismembered and dumped in a local waterway, while last month crime reporter Victor Baez was found dead in the city of Xalapa, making him the fourth journalist to be killed in Veracruz in the past two months.