December 2009 - WikiLeaks



December 2009

Sicarios Attack Aguascalientes Police Headquarters

Sunday, December 13, 2009

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Aguascalientes, MX - Earlier last Thursday, a gang of 40 armed men attacked a police headquarters in San Francisco de los Romo, in the central state of Aguascalientes, killing two police officers. In the morning of December 3 a heavily armed commando with more than 30 luxury SUVs attacked and slaughtered 3 police officers.

Ten of the SUV surrounded the building of the Municipal police headquarters and started firing their high-powered weapons. They threw grenades and fire power from 50 caliber weapons. The result was two policemen dead and one seriously injured.

Then another group of gunmen aboard two trucks, plunged into the parking lot and fired their his AK-47 "cuernos de chivo" and AR-15 killing police officer José Manuel Robles Prieto, 38 years of age,  who was at the entrance of a guard house. His death was instantaneous.

Then they entered the police station asking for the director César Barbosa Barrios who was not in at the time. Then they sprayed the facility gun fire.

The gunmen boarded their trucks and fled, but they had advanced a few yards when they met a patrol vehicle driven by police officer Clemente Castro Díaz 40. When the sicarios saw him, they began shooting at him.

Faced with the unexpected attack, the officer diverted his vehicle away to some soccer fields that were located behind the police building but the sicarios continued firing at him.

There was convoy of 9 trucks that was following him aboard with numerous gunmen, but one of the trucks left the convoy and went directly after the police vehicle that was attempting to flee in a dirt empty field.

One of the bullets struck one of the tires of the police unit and Diaz got out of the unit running on foot.

The sicarios continued to pursue the officer and one of the sicarios was able to hit the officer on the back.

Wounded, the officer continued to run but the truck driven by the sicarios struck the officer running him over.

The truck stopped and one of the sicarios got out and fired at least 53 shots at the body of the officer at close range hitting him several times including several shots to the head.

More than 1,300 spent shell casings were found at this scene and the police vehicles was destroyed in this sad note of Mexican history.

January 2010

Dismembered Body of Federal Judiciary Found

They found the mutilated body on the street with a narco message in Veracruz-Boca del Rio.

Veracruz-Boca del Río - The Federal Judiciary, Nayeli Reyes Santos, 32 years of age, who was abducted last Thursday when she was walking to work, was found at 7 this morning dead and dismembered in the streets of Invernadero and Marte in the community of Joyas de Mocambo.

With signs of torture, mutilated and a narco-banner nailed to the back with a knife, is how the remains of Reyes Santos were found. The narco-poster had a warning against those who tried to betray the cartel members "Z" or Zetas. Unofficially it is believed that the message said, "This is what is going to happen to all those who show no respect or finger the company. Atte Z."

Later authorities were able to confirm that the body found belonged to Nayeli Reyes Santos, who was intercepted by a van with unidentified men, when she was walking on the street Habaneras near the corner of Paseo Jardines de Virginia.

After being missing for 72 hours, the body of Reyes Santos was finally found. She is the counsel of the official Second Judicial Court of the Federation, who was abducted last Thursday morning a few blocks from her home when she was walking to work.

The soldiers who had arrived at the scene saw that it was the body of a woman, her dismembered body had the legs and arms wrapped in plastic bags and her torso was facing down. She was wearing underwear and a tank top. The hands were still secured by handcuffs and, black pants and shoes were found with the limbs.  Her head was detached from the body. The head was later found under two sheets at the corner of Invernadero street in the community of Jardines de Virginia, near her home and where she was raised.

They do not have any clue to the identity of the criminals.

Several units of the Mexican Army, Federal Police and elements of the Secretariat of Public Security arrived at the scene. Also at the scene was the staff of attorney general’s office, who was already conducting an investigating of the disappearance of the girl since last Thursday.

According to unofficial sources, the death of the employee of the Federal Judicial Power is related to the arrest of the auditor and supervisor of the cell "Sur" of the Gulf Cartel.

It was last week when two shootings were reported in the port of Veracruz that resulted in the arrest of Juan Carlos Tarabay Castillo, aka "El 20," who served as auditor and supervisor for the cell "Sur" that includes Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo. Subordinate Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, aka "El 40," was the last major operator of that organization.

In addition they secured the arrest of Jaime Cifuentes Márquez, aka "El Chupon" and Desiderio Jiménez Rivera, aka "El Borrado," all members of the criminal organization of "Cárdenas Guillen."

UPDATE:

Corpse is returned to INMEFO

During the night, the parents of the lawyer Nayeli Reyes, discovered that the corpse they were viewing during the wake had some very different characteristics from those of their daughter.

The main observation was the fact that the body had curly hair, unlike Nayeli’s, who is straight and streaked with "highlights".

These inconsistencies were brought to the attention of the Governor Fidel Herrera, who immediately ordered all the necessary tests of exams to remove any doubts.

The wake was suspended and the body was returned to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where in the course of the next few hours they will perform various forensic tests, including DNA testing.

Severed Head Found and Police Chief Killed

Police chief killed, severed head found in Mexican town.

The Associated Press

Morelia, Mexico - Gunmen killed a police chief and two officers Thursday in the same western town where a human head was dumped a day earlier.

Antonio Bravo, police chief of Quiroga, and two officers were attacked while they drove in a patrol car, Michoacan state prosecutors said in a statement.

Quiroga authorities found the severed head Wednesday in the town's tree-lined plaza near city hall. It was accompanied by a threatening message referring to a drug cartel.

Also Thursday, police in the Michoacan town of Zitacuaro found several plastic bags containing body parts near the city government offices, prosecutors said.

And in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa, a man was hanged from a bridge in the Villa Union, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the resort city of Mazatlan.

Police found a message threatening the Zetas, a gang founded by former-soldiers-turned-hit men who also work with the Gulf cartel, state Attorney General's Office spokesman Martin Gastelum said.

Gastelum said the unidentified man had been tortured first.

Sinaloa is Mexico's drug-smuggling heartland and the birthplace of the leadership of four of the six major cartels.

Drug violence has killed more than 15,000 people nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on cartels in late 2006.

February 2010

The Chief of the PEP is Executed

He was apprehended in 2008 by soldiers, accused of extortion.

Along with his bodyguards he was later released.

Tijuana, BC - José Angel Meza Valdez, Chief of the State Preventive Police (PEP) was executed on Saturday afternoon, as he was driving his own personal car, a Ford Focus with border plates, and it was presumed he was going to his place of work since he had mentioned that he was going to "stand guard".

The chief had been was arrested along with five of his bodyguards in April 2008 by members of the Mexican Army, accused of extorting a woman, yet all of suspects got out, and despite the arrest, they all continued to work within of the police agency.

The Secretary of the Public Safety Department of the State (SSPE) this afternoon confirmed the death of this agent who was 41 years old and who was allegedly attacked with firearms at around 1524 hours.

Authorities learned that the chief was travelling on board his personal vehicle on the boulevard Cucapáh to go to the facilities of the State Preventive Police in the zone Rio when the attack occurred.

The chief of the PEP joined the agency on November 10, 2004. The body of the chief was still inside his vehicle slumped toward the driver's seat.

In this regard, the state prosecutor's office stated that the killing occurred on the street Cucapáh and street Plan Libertador in the community Buenos Aires Norte, where besides the body of police chief, they also located 6 spent casings of 45 caliber.

His arrest

The arrest of Meza Valdez was recorded on April 21, 2008, when a man complained to authorities that this commander had "detained" his wife Sandra Castaneda, which he was driving around in his unit, while he was demanding 5,000 U.S. dollars in order for her release.

Supposedly state agents had previously arrived at the woman's house in the subdivision Mariano Matamoros, where they searched the house and afterwards they put her in a Pickup truck, where they were detected by elements of the military.

In his defense he said that the woman sold drugs and said that they were conducting an operation. Along with him were also arrested: José Aarón Coronado Ganda, Fernando Emmanuel Patiño Constantino, Álvaro Efrén Aburto Montalvo, Inés Navarrete Mariscal, Ángel Alfonso Fuentevilla Villalobos.

March 2010

Another Chief Executed

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon - The decapitated body of the police chief of a northern Mexico town and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck Friday.

The Agualeguas municipal chief and his brother were discovered after state police received a telephone call early Friday about a patrol vehicle abandoned near a village more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon’s capital, state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said.

Forensic experts examine a police patrol car after police found the decapitated body of a town police chief and the body of his brother inside the car near the town of General Trevino, Mexico Friday March 26, 2010. The windshield and driver's door of Cerda's patrol car had 'C.D.G,' an acronym for the Gulf drug cartel, written in blood.

The body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, was found on the bed of a patrol pickup truck, which was left on a dirt road in the nearby town of General Trevino. His head was on his lap, said a spokesman for Nuevo Leon state prosecutors who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The body of the chief's brother, Jesus Cerda, was found inside the truck, the official said. He didn't say how Jesus Cerda was killed.

Nuevo Leon state secretary general Javier Trevino told reporters that Cerda and his brother had been reported missing Thursday.

The killers used the victims’ blood to paint the patrol vehicle with the initials “CDG,” signifying Cartel del Golfo, or Gulf cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug outfits. The windshield and driver's door of the patrol car had "C.D.G.," an acronym for the Gulf drug cartel, written in blood, photos showed.

Forensic personnel inspect a police truck, with the letters CDG written in blood on the windshield.

The border state of Nuevo Leon, where Agualeguas and General Trevino are located, has seen an upsurge in violence that authorities say is the result of a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, the cartel's former hit men.

The slayings came a day after Mexican marines on patrol in the Nuevo Leon town of Cerralvo came under fire after ordering a convoy of gunmen traveling in six vehicles to stop. Six of the assailants were killed.

Drug-related mayhem has claimed a dozen lives in Nuevo Leon over the past two days, including six gunmen killed in a clash with Mexican marines.

Violence has intensified in Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas since the appearance last month in Monterrey of giant banners announcing an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned killers for hire.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s penchant for kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans, many of whom were inclined to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.

Battles among drug cartels and the security forces’ struggle against the mobs have claimed nearly 19,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006, when current President Felipe Calderon took office.

Vowing to crush the cartels, Calderon has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police to the country’s most conflictive areas, yet the pace of drug-related killings has only accelerated, from 2,700 people in 2007 to 7,724 fatalities last year.

The 2010 death toll has already topped 2,200, according to a tally kept by Mexico City daily El Universal.

Gunmen Kill Nogales Deputy Police Chief and Bodyguard

[pic]Saturday, March 27, 2010 | [pic]Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs

The assistant police chief in Nogales, Sonora and his bodyguard were killed late Thursday night in a barrage of gunfire.

The deputy police chief in Nogales, Son., Adalberto Padilla Molina, and bodyguard Iván Sepúlveda Espino, were killed Thursday night when police say a small group of men in a pickup truck pulled up to the van they were riding and opened fire, according to reports in the Sonoran newspaper El Imparcial. reported. The victims were traveling in a green Dodge Caravan along the main street called Luis Donaldo Colosio about 9:45 p.m. when the shooting occurred.

Nogales, Sonora - Adalberto Padilla Molina and his bodyguard, Iván Sepúlveda Espino, were driving in a minivan in central Nogales on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio and El Greco Boulevard when three people in a gray Ford pickup truck opened fire with AK-47s, said Jose Larrinaga, a spokesman for the Sonora prosecutor's office.

The shooting occurred at 9:45 p.m. near a shopping center parking lot located about three miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. A 17-year-old boy who standing outside of a nearby funeral home was injured as he tried to avoid the gunfire and is in stable condition, Larrinaga said.

Padilla and his bodyguard didn't have a chance to shoot back or avoid the attack, Larrinaga said. Padilla, who has a military background, took over as assistant police chief on Dec. 3.

Adalberto Padilla Molina, the deputy police chief in Nogales, Sonora., and his body guard were killed Thursday night in an ambush.

He is the second high-ranking law enforcement officer killed in Sonora in the past two years in Nogales, Sonora.

On Nov. 3, 2008, gunmen ambushed the director of Sonora's state police, Juan Manuel Pavón Félix, with guns and grenades as he entered his hotel in central Nogales alongside his bodyguard and other law-enforcement officials.

Deputy Chief Adalberto Padilla Molina.

The Sheriff of Santa Cruz County said the murder of the deputy police chief of Nogales, Mexico, and his body guard Thursday night is very disturbing.

Sheriff Tony Estrada told The Associated Press Friday it's also troubling that drug cartels are targeting Mexican police command staff.

Body Guard Iván Sepúlveda Espino.

Estrada called the killings unfortunate and worrisome because the killings are so close to Nogales, Arizona, the county seat of Santa Cruz County.

On Feb. 27, 2007, Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramón Tacho Verdugo was also killed.

"It's very disturbing that they are targeting the upper command of law enforcement," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. "It's got to be sending very chilling effect to the officers that are working under him."

The fact that an innocent bystander was shot shows the danger of the situation, he said.

"Something definitely has to be done," Estrada said. "It's just completely out of control."

Drug-related killings have skyrocketed in Nogales, Sonora, in the past three years as drug cartels vie for the prized corridor while Mexican law enforcement attempts to weaken them.

There were 136 homicides in 2009, up from 126 in 2008 and 52 in 2007.

Through March 23 of this year, there have been 79 killings, according to a tally maintained by El Imparcial newspaper in Sonora.

The violence has landed the border city on the U.S. State Department's travel warning.

In the new warning, the city of Nogales, Sonora, is mentioned twice for drug-related violence, as it was in the travel alert updated on Feb. 22.

The State Department has offered family members of officials at the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora, monetary assistance until mid April to relocate family members because of the violence.

Padilla spoke to the Arizona Daily Star in mid-December about the raging drug violence in Nogales, Sonora.

He said residents should be cautious but not worried because the battles are nearly exclusively between criminals or target law enforcement officials.

Padilla at the time insisted that municipal, state and federal police were collaborating to contain the drug cartels.

"These events alarm the public, but the public should have confidence in their authorities," Padilla said during the interview.

April 2010

Police Installation Attacked In San Fernando Tamaulipas

Saturday, April 3, 2010 |

Two police buildings attacked in San Fernando.

San Fernando, Tamaulipas - Authorities have confirmed an attack against two police department buildings just a couple hours south of the Rio Grande Valley.

The Tamaulipas Ministry of Public Safety (SSP) confirmed an armed attack against the buildings for state and municipal police.

The SSP reported that the attack was carried out early Wednesday morning.

Nobody was reported injured but state officials confirmed that guns were fired and explosive devices were thrown.

The two buildings received damage but no further details were available.

State officials are investigating the dual attack.

Authorities have confirmed an attack against two police department buildings just a couple hours south of the Rio Grande Valley.

San Fernando is located a couple of hours south of Matamoros, Valle Hermoso and Reynosa.

Updated news from this region is greatly appreciated.

A video of vehcles from an attack on police forces in San Fernando Tamaulipas. At the scene where traces of blood inside the police vehicles where possibly officers were either injured or killed. Also vehicles from the sicarios with the "Z" (Los Zetas) symbol were seen at the scene.

Police Chief and two Other Officers Killed in Los Aldamas

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Los Aldamas, Nuevo Leon -  Well, we have been reading a lot here on the Borderland Beat about some of the corrupt police officers. But in the northeastern part of Mexico a lot of them have been getting killed. Why do they get killed? Very few get killed while in the heat of battle, most are killed during an ambush or they get abducted and are later found executed.

That is exactly what happened in Aldama where two municipal police officers and their police chief were reportedly abducted (levantados) between Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Well, they were found executed Wednesday, their bodies dumped in a ravine in the rural part of the town.

The police chief was identified as Oliver García Peña, while the other two victim officers have not yet been identified.

As reported in the newspaper El Norte of Monterrey it was around yesterday afternoon when Pemex employees who were in the area to inspect a well of the oil company at which time they found the tree bodies.

The crime scene was full of military personnel who were there to keep the area secured. The agents of the Ministerial department as well as crime scene investigators arrived to process the scene. So there is not a lot of information yet. We do not know the cause of death.

Sometimes police officers get killed by organize crime because they have ties to rival cartels or sometimes they get killed because they are fighting the cartels. Seems like it's a "no win" situation no matter how you cut it.

Police Stations Attacked in Reynosa

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Ahora pues raza!

Well things continue to go on here in Tamaulipas, the most beautiful state in Mexico!

But the grip from the violence on Tamaulipas will not subside and I hear the missing increase by the day.

No place in Tamaulipas is immune.

Reynosa, Tamaulipas - Almost two weeks of relative calm in the embattled border city of Reynosa ended on Thursday night.

Reynosa officials are asking residents to avoid leaving their homes following numerous reports of violence in the streets.

The first report came from the Colonia La Canada off Boulevard Miguel Aleman and Calle Narciso Mendoza around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Reynosa city officials reported that an explosion went off at a police station in that neighborhood.

Authorities later said that there were other attacks at police stations in the Colonia Pedro J. Mendez and off Boulevard Morelos.

City officials reported the presence of numerous armed men in the streets.

Authorities are urging residents to remain safe and stay in their homes.

Reynosa city officials gave an "all clear" signal around 11:55 p.m. Thursday.

The Tamaulipas Ministry of Public Safety (SSP) reported that the attacks are under investigation by federal authorities.

The last reported shootout in the city happened almost two weeks ago on Good Friday when a convoy of SUVs attacked a state prison and released 12 inmates.

Three were killed in the attack. Federal officials later charged seven prison guards for their alleged roles in the escape.

No shootouts had been reported in Reynosa by state or city officials since that incident.

But finally, government recognizes the threat.

Reynosa officials urge people to stay indoors after grenade attack near police stationReynosa officials urge people to stay indoors after grenade attack near police station.

Reynosa authorities urged residents to stay home after reports of violence across the city Thursday night, including what one police officer described as a grenade attack near the municipal police station.

The city began posting alerts about 9:30 p.m. via Twitter about “situations of risk” along Miguel Alemán Boulevard and in the Narciso Mendoza and Canada neighborhoods on the city’s west side.

Minutes later, officials informed residents that an explosion had occurred in the Canada neighborhood and told people to avoid the area. The city later announced via Twitter that there had been an attack on the municipal police station on Morelos Boulevard. Officials also announced a situation of risk in the Pedro J. Mendez subdivision.

By 10:20 p.m., city officials asked people to seek shelter and avoid going outdoors.

Reynosa police Officer Julio Cavazos said a grenade landed near the municipal police station in the Rodriguez neighborhood but caused little to no damage to the building itself. No injuries were reported during the attack.

“We’re all fine,” Cavazos said hastily in Spanish. “It didn’t hit us.”

Shortly after 11 p.m., Tamaulipas officials separately confirmed on the state’s emergency notification website that police facilities were attacked in the Canada, Pedro J. Mendez and Rodriguez neighborhoods. No injuries were reported in those incidents, which remain under investigation by federal authorities.

Reynosa had remained relatively calm until Thursday’s attack, according to city officials. No violence-related fatalities have been reported since April 2, when a prison break left three inmates dead and a gunfight killed five on the city’s southwest side.

On Wednesday, Tamaulipas state police found a corpse in the border city of Miguel Alemán, located across the Rio Grande from Roma.

A travel warning for Mexico that the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey first issued last month remains in effect until May 12.

An estimated total of more than 22,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderón launched a military crackdown on drug cartels.

The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey issued a warning Wednesday in response to the kidnapping of at least six people from two downtown hotels in that city during an early-morning attack.

May 2010

Police Chief, 5 Others Slain in Northeastern Mexico

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A municipal police chief and five other people died in three violent incidents in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, authorities said Friday.

The state’s public information office said the chief of police in the rural community of Barbosa and a person accompanying him were fatally shot Thursday night by unknown assailants.

Authorities did not reveal the identities of the victims nor the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

In the city of Reynosa, which borders McAllen, Texas, a man with gunshot wounds who had been left outside a hospital died while receiving medical treatment.

In Rio Bravo, another border town, a clash between military personnel and gunmen left three civilians dead, Mexico’s defense department said.

In the first six days of May, 23 people have been killed in Tamaulipas in clashes between the Gulf drug cartel and former allies Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns.

Gov. Eugenio Hernandez met Friday in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital, with Jorge Tello Peon, public safety advisor to President Felipe Calderon, to discuss the recent uptick in violence in Tamaulipas.

“The idea is to inform (Peon) about the situation in the state, especially in the conflictive areas where a greater presence of federal forces is required, as is the case of the towns in the (northeastern part of Tamaulipas) and in San Fernando specifically,” Hernandez said in a statement.

In other drug-related violence, four men died in the southern state of Guerrero, the scene of clashes between rival drug gangs since the beginning of the year.

The four men were shot and killed Thursday in the town of La Union, with three of the bodies found at a ranch and the fourth less than a mile away, the state Public Safety Secretariat said.

The victims were repairing a fence when several armed assailants arrived and began firing gunshots and torching the ranch.

Authorities said they had not yet established a motive and were conducting an operation to locate the assailants.

A total of 327 organized-crime-related killings were reported in Guerrero between January and April of this year, according to government figures.

The popular seaside resort of Acapulco, Guerrero’s largest city, has also been affected by the violence.

The killing of powerful drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva in December in a shootout with marines touched off an internal battle for control of the cartel he led. That fighting has resulted in numerous deaths in the states of Guerrero and Morelos.

Nearly 23,000 people have been killed nationwide in drug-related violence since December 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon gave Mexico’s armed forces the leading role in battling the cartels.

Two Wounded in Attack on Police Chief

Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Secretary of Public Security in Escobedo, retired Brigadier General Hermelindo Lara Cruz, survived 40 minutes of hail of bullets from sicarios in five SUVs that fired on the vehicle and the C4 municipal police headquarters.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee, with level 5 armor plus, withstood some 100 impacts from gunfire that allowed the chief Lara to take shelter in the headquarters. The rear window that as not bullet proof was totally destroyed.

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon - A soldier and a civilian were wounded in an attack by suspected cartel hit men on a police chief in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, officials said.

A group of assailants on board five SUVs fired gunshots at the vehicle in which Gen. Hermelindo Lara Cruz – the Public Safety secretary in the town of Escobedo, part of the Monterrey metropolitan area – was riding.

The assailants also fired at the city’s police headquarters, but “the general and his guards managed to warn the people who were inside and therefore all the police and civilians were able to run and hide,” an official statement from the Escobedo municipal government read.

Gunmen wielding AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles wounded a soldier and the driver of a trailer that was parked outside the police station. The hit men also fired at patrol cars and other vehicles that were parked near the building.

Gen. Lara Cruz had received threats a few weeks ago and several people who were acting suspiciously near his home were even arrested.

Members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, which is battling other crime syndicates for control of the region, have established themselves in Escobedo and other towns of the Monterrey metropolitan area, according to military sources.

Cartel gunmen are believed to account for the vast majority of the fatalities since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and militarized the struggle against the nation’s violent drug mobs.

The deployment of around 65,000 Federal Police officers and army soldiers to cartel battlegrounds nationwide has led to the capture of more than 60,000 suspected criminals, but has not succeeded in stemming the killings.

According to a classified report provided last month to senators, 22,743 people were killed in Mexico from December 2006 – when President Felipe Calderon took office – through early April in turf battles among drug-trafficking organizations and security forces’ efforts to crack down on the cartels.

The classified report estimated the 2010 death toll as of mid-April 2010 at 2,904.

June 2010

Attacks Against Police Continue Throughout Mexico

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Secretary of Public Security for the state of Durango ambushed.

On Saturday June 5, in coordinated attacks, a group of up to 20 unknown gunmen ambushed the vehicle carrying the state of Durango Secretary of Public Safety general Valentin Romano Lopez, who was unhurt. Six government agents were injured, including the chief officer of the State Police (PEP), Sergio Masariegos who is in serious condition.

According to official reports the gunmen, who were armed with heavy weapons and grenades, appeared on foot and in several vehicles and fired on general Romano Lopez and his bodyguard detail on his way to play tennis. The attack occurred in the state capital of Durango city outside of a sports club in Guadiana Park, across from the art school of the Juarez of Durango State University.

The general’s bodyguards repelled the attack after suffering two casualties and

were soon reinforced by agents of the State Investigative Police (AEI), municipal policemen and Mexican army troops, causing the attackers to flee.

After an operation was organized to pursue and capture the gunmen another confrontation occurred on Durango boulevard, in which the chief officer of the State Preventive Police, who headed the operation, was injured by receiving a bullet in the abdomen.

As the pursuit continued the attackers, using grenade launchers, fired several grenades at policemen who were on the corner of Durango Boulevard and Calle Banderas, wounding two more government agents. About 2,000 shell casings of various calibers littered the streets after the attack.

The fate of the attacking gunmen remains unknown at this time.

The attack on the Secretary of Public Security of Durango is the second recorded this year against an official of that rank in the country.

On April 24 of this year, the Secretary of Public Security for the state of Michoacán, Minerva Bautista, was injured in an ambush that killed 4 people and wounded 10.

The previous Saturday six decapitated bodies were found scattered in the twin city area of Lerdo and Gomez Palacio, Durango. Two of the bodies belonged to police officers that had been abducted 3 days before.

Two ministerial police agents executed in Navolato, Sinaloa

Two state police agents were found tortured and executed on a dirt road in the outskirts of Navolato, Sinaloa just after midnight Saturday morning.

The two victims were identified as Rafael Esquivel Galicia Morales and Victor Manuel Ochoa Sanchez. According to information provided by the authorities, both men were assigned to the Beta Group of the State Ministerial Police, which is responsible for executing arrest warrants.

Both officers were abducted by a group of gunmen around 9:40 PM Friday night in the state capital of Culiacan while on patrol. Their vehicle was found on Avenida Revolucion.

Later Friday night the police command center in Culiacan received a report of two bodies on a road between Culiacan and Navolato. Municipal police from Navolato arrived shortly thereafter.

Both bodies were found on the side of the dirt road laying on their backs and bearing signs of torture and multiple gunshot wounds. A medical examiner at the site said the men had been dragged on the road behind the vehicles of the gunmen. 42 shell casings belonging to AK-47s and 9mm weapons lay by the bodies.

Two police commanders attacked in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

On Friday night at approximately 11:00 PM, Edgar Vasquez Anaya, a Sinaloa State Police Comandante, was found shot to death in the ejido San Miguel located between the cities of Culiacan and Navolato.

The medical examiner’s report stated that his death was the result of 3 bullet wounds.

According to the state Secretary of Public Security’s office in Culiacan, Edgar Vasquez was a state police commander in charge of a detention center in the port city of Mazatlan.

Lw enforcement authorities indicated that Vazquez Anaya was in this city attending a course on weapons handling offered by the State Institute of Criminal Sciences, The commander had previously been accused by guards of granting privileges to inmates involved with the criminal group “los Zetas”.

On Saturday at 7:30 PM Martin Delgado Quezada, the police commander in charge of security for the state government offices in Culiacan, was shot and seriously injured by two unidentified gunmen on foot.

According to witnesses, the gunmen ambushed the police commander outside of his home as he entered a white Nissan Altima on his way to the government palace.

Delgado Quezada reacted immediately to the attack and accelerated away from the scene. He was aided by another police official who witnessed the attack and he was driven in his own vehicle to a private hospital where he is currently in intensive care.

The gunmen escaped in a white luxury sedan.

9 Police Officers Executed in Monterrey

Thursday, June 17, 2010 |

In what has been the bloodiest day in recent memory 13 people including 9 police officers were executed by unknown gunmen in Monterrey on Wednesday, June 16.

The city has seen an upsurge in violence and murders associated with organized criminal groups since the detention of the Zeta cartel leader for the state of Nuevo Leon, Hector Raul Luna Luna “el Tory” last week.

The murders occurred in the cities of Apodaca, Guadalupe and Santiago which make up part of the Monterrey metropolitan area and within Monterrey itself.

Apodaca

The tortured and mutilated bodies of five Apodaca police officers , two of them women, were found in a vacant lot Wednesday morning by passing motorists.

In a sign of the increasing brutality practiced by criminal gangs some of the victims had been disemboweled and one was decapitated. Three of the victims had “narco-messages” addressed to a rival criminal group nailed to their bodies with ice picks.

Some of the bodies were placed to form the letter Z which is a signature used by the Zeta drug cartel to claim responsibility for the action.

All five officers had been abducted from their homes the previous night. Two of the officers, Juan Roberto Escobedo Lopez and Dulce Maria Esperanza Lira Torres, both supervisors, were a common law couple.

On Wednesday the couple’s two sons were also abducted according to family members. Their fate remains unknown.

Monterrey

At approximately 1:00 PM three unidentified youths were shot and killed in the Primero de Mayo neighborhood in the city of Monterrey by a group of gunmen shooting from an identified vehicle.

According to neighbors the youths were associated with a “narcotienda”, a location where illegal drug sales occur.

Santiago

On Wednesday afternoon two Santiago municipal policemen were murdered while patrolling on National Highway 85.

According to witnesses they were intercepted by a group of gunmen in various vehicles and were hit by gunfire from automatic weapons. The police unit ended up in a creek after losing control.

In the last 3 months a total of eight Santiago municipal policemen have been assassinated by organized criminal groups.

Guadalupe

Wednesday night the bodies of three men, two of them Guadalupe municipal police officers, were found executed outside of an industrial park in the neighboring city of Apodaca,

The two officers were abducted Wednesday afternoon immediately after finishing their shift. The third man was a known drug dealer who may have been under the protection of the two policemen.

In a news conference Thursday the Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Alejandro Garza y Garza “washed his hands” of Wednesday’s killings.

Stating that the incidents were a result of an “ajuste de cuentas” (settling of scores or revenge hits) between 2 rival cartels currently at war, Garza y Garza stated authorities were unable to prevent them and are only able to investigate after the fact. No arrests are anticipated at this time.

The state prosecutor said the investigation would be based on the assumption that all the victims of Wednesday’s executions were involved in drug trafficking and connected to one cartel or the other.

The Zeta cartel and its rival the Gulf cartel and its allies have been at war for control of the “plaza” or drug trafficking corridors in northeast Mexico including the state of Nuevo Leon.

Gunmen Kill 3 Police Officers in Northern Mexico

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Monterrey – A group of around 20 men armed with assault rifles attacked city hall and the police headquarters in Los Herreras, a city in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, city officials said Tuesday.

The attack occurred Monday night just after 11:30 p.m. in the rural city, located more than 110 kilometers (68 miles) northeast of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon.

Initial reports are that the gunmen, who were wearing uniforms and arrived in several SUVs, opened fire with AR-15s on city hall, where police headquarters is also located.

The gunmen then went inside and killed the three officers on duty.

The dead officers were identified as Miguel Angel Torres, Eusebio Muñiz and Andres Ayala.

Investigators found nearly 100 bullet casings from .223-caliber weapons outside city hall.

The gunmen abandoned a late-model vehicle that had been reported stolen recently.

The vehicle’s windows bore the acronym “Z 40,” the nickname of Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, the head of the Los Zetas cartel in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila states.

The rural area where Los Herreras is located is near the border with Tamaulipas and has been the scene of several killings of police officers and shootouts between the army and drug traffickers.

Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas have been rocked by a wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

The violence has intensified in the two border states since the appearance in February in Monterrey of giant banners heralding an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia Michoacana drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s involvement in kidnappings, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans willing to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.

Some 5,004 people, or an average of nearly 29 per day, have died in drug-related violence in Mexico this year, the Excelsior newspaper reported Tuesday.

September 2010

Two Police Dead, 7 Missing in Guerrero State Ambush

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Two police agents are dead and seven are missing following an ambush against authorities of the prosecutor’s office in Guerrero state, southern Mexico, officials of that agency said Saturday.

The director of the PIM police investigations agency, Fernando Monreal, said in a statement to the press that two agents of that security force died when an armed group ambushed them Friday in the community of El Revelado in the Teloloapan municipality near Mexico state.

The official said that “seven other (agents) are missing,” so that an operation is underway to try and find them with the aid of the Mexico state prosecutor’s office.

Among the missing is the unit commander, Enrique Figueroa Abundes, who was the head of PIM headquarters there.

Monreal said that the dead police agents were identified as Jose Guadalupe Espinoza and Ramon Salvador Cuevas, and that their bodies were found Saturday morning.

The first reports from the authorities said that the police unit was carrying out an operation Friday to arrest a suspected murderer when they were intercepted in the community of El Revelado by between 30 and 40 armed men.

The region where the police agents were gunned down is a drug-producing area and the scene of turf battles among various drug cartels.

UPDATE:

The death toll from the ambush staged against police in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero has risen to eight, with one officer wounded, officials said.

Proceso is reporting that of eight of the nine (we had initially reported seven) judicial police reported missing since yesterday in the limits of Guerrero state in Mexico were found executed.

The officers were said to be linked to the group of sicarios who call themselves "Los Pelones" an armed wing of the Beltran Leyva cartel that operates in the Tierra Caliente region and northern area of the entity.

An official report says that about three in the afternoon on Saturday at a location known as Acapetlahuaya, in the municipality of General Canuto A. Neri authorities found the remains of six people that had been killed, four of them were dismembered.

Four judicial police were found decapitated in a truck belonging to the PIM, that was found abandoned at the intersection of Acapetlahuaya (municipality of Pedro Ascencio de Alquisiras), three more in a nearby gully and two others in the limits of Guerrero and Mexico State, where they also found the injured officer.

Next to the bodies was a sign with the following message: "This is what happens for supporting "Los Pelones." Berna here I send them to you, although you sent them disguised as judicial police, I am returning them to you."

State officials confirmed that the victims were identified as part of the group of judicial policemen that were reported missing, two others were killed yesterday and another was wounded.

Enrique Figueroa Abundes, who was in charge of the state police unit in the area, was among the officers killed.

Reportedly found execited were Enrique Figueroa Abundes (former member of the security detail of former Gov. Rene Juarez Cisneros), José Guadalupe Espinosa Román, Salvador Moran Cuevas, Raymundo Lorenzo Guzmán, Sabás Jiménez Serrano, Ángel Miranda Mendoza, Héctor Morales Visoso, Rangel Salmerón Ortega, and seriously injured was Oscar Roman de Jesus, however, the State Police explained that they also found another dead victim by the name of Gabriel Olvera Alvarado.

Previuosly there had been several executions in the area of Guerrero that included several men found decapitated. Two bodies found decapitated had a sign next to them with a message that read:

"This is what will happen to all those who support fucking Reinaldo Pineda Chávez de Jaripo and Hector Beltrán. Morelos and Guerrero already have their boss and you all know who it is. Greeting to the ARRA."

November 2010

Woman Police Chief Slain in Meoqui

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The body of Hermila Garcia Quinones lies covered next to her car in Los Garcia November 29, 2010. Garcia Quinones, a police chief, was killed by gunmen and Mexican soldiers found 18 bodies buried on a ranch near the Texas border on Monday in the latest bout of unrelenting violence in northern Mexico.

The woman leading the police department in the northern Mexican town of Meoqui was slain while driving to work, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said Monday.

Hermila Garcia was named last month as chief of the 90-strong police force in Meoqui, located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Chihuahua city, the state capital. In recent months, Meoqui had started to see some of this violence. A once peaceful town, the drug violence-related death tally has shot up to 40 deaths so far this year. Normally that death count would account for homicides over seven years.

Garcia was found fatally shot in her car at a spot near her home about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town center, the AG’s office said.

Mexican federal police officers man a roadblock in the town of Meoqui, state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico, Monday Nov. 29, 2010 after the police chief of the town was gunned down.

Authorities suspect the police chief, whose prior experience included working as an investigator for the federal AG’s office, was murdered by gunmen working for drug traffickers or other organized crime elements.

"La Jefa," as she was known to her police agents, didn't carry weapons or have bodyguards.

"If you don't owe anything, you don't fear anything," she was fond of saying when asked why she didn't have security.

Mexican media reported that Garcia was single and lived with her parents, whom she supported financially.

Silvia Molina, the top administrative official of the police department in Ciudad Juarez, the state’s largest city, was murdered in 2008.

Policing has become a job so dangerous that men are now shying away from such posts. The state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas, has three other female police chiefs. Just last month 20-year-old criminology student Marisol Valles was appointed chief of police in Praxedis, in the Juarez valley, a key drug smuggling route just across the border from Texas also in Chihuahua state. Why did a 20-year-old mother accept the position? No one else would. Her predecessor was kidnapped more than a year ago. His head was deposited outside the police station a few days after he disappeared. After that, no one came forward to fill the police chief vacancy for more than a year -- until Valles was appointed top cop by the town's mayor

Other women who have taken top policing jobs because no men would include two housewives: Verenica Rios Ontiveros and Olga Herrera Castillo, who took over policing jobs in El Vergel and Villa de Luz, both in Juarez, now known as the "murder capital" of the world due to its high murder rate. The Juarez valley has had more than 2,700 drug violence-related deaths this year.

Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico’s murder capital, with more than 2,700 homicides so far this year and roughly 8,000 slain since the beginning of 2008.

The carnage is blamed on a bitter turf battle between rival drug cartels, itself part of a wider conflict involving the gangs and the Mexican security forces that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide over the past four years.

Chihuahua has accounted for around a third of all the drug war fatalities.

December 2010

Woman Police Chief Slain in Mexico

Friday, December 3, 2010

The woman leading the police department in the northern Mexican town of Meoqui was slain while driving to work, the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office said Monday.

Hermila García was named last month as chief of the 90-strong police force in Meoqui, located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Chihuahua city, the state capital.

García was found fatally shot in her car at a spot near her home about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town center, the AG's office said.

Authorities suspect the police chief, whose prior experience included working as an investigator for the federal AG's office, was murdered by gunmen working for drug traffickers or other organized crime elements.

Chihuahua, which borders Texas, has three other female police chiefs, including 20-year-old criminology student Marisol Valles, recently appointed the top law enforcement officer in Praxedis G. Guerrero.

Related Links

Newest Police Chief in Mexican Drug Epicenter is Student, 20 Silvia Molina, the top administrative official of the police department in Ciudad Juárez, the state's largest city, was murdered in 2008.

Juárez, just across the Río Grande from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico's murder capital, with more than 2,700 homicides so far this year and roughly 8,000 slain since the beginning of 2008.

The carnage is blamed on a bitter turf battle between rival drug cartels, itself part of a wider conflict involving the gangs and the Mexican security forces that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide over the past four years.

Chihuahua has accounted for around a third of all the drug war fatalities.

January 2011

State Prisons Chief Slain in Sonora

[pic]Thursday, January 6, 2011

The recently appointed head of the prison service in the northern Mexican state of Sonora was murdered, sources in the state government said Tuesday.

Erasto Ortiz Valencia was killed by three men who burst into his home and shot him at point-blank range, the state government press office said in a statement.

The official died later at a hospital in Hermosillo, Sonora’s capital.

Ortiz took over responsibility for the state’s 15 prisons just 12 days ago, after his predecessor was ousted for alleged misconduct.

Sonora Public Safety Secretary Ernesto Munro sees the murder of Ortiz as “a response to the state’s determination to end corruption,” his office said in a statement.

Separately, the deputy police chief in Empalme, Sonora, was slain Tuesday while driving to work.

Miguel Acosta Garcia, 32, was shot by assailants armed with AK-47 assault rifles after leaving his wife and children at the home of his mother-in-law, state authorities said.

Police Chief Slain in Michoacan

[pic]Saturday, January 8, 2011

A police chief was gunned down in front of his wife and children on a road in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan.

Sources with that state’s Public Safety Secretariat said the chief of police of the Michoacan town of Taretan, Francisco Aparicio Mendez, was killed Thursday on a road leading to the nearby municipality of Ziracuaretiro.

The assailants, who used a vehicle to intercept the automobile in which Aparicio and his family were riding, shot the police chief at least 40 times.

I a very cruel way the Chief was shot with high power rifles, AR-15's, at close range and left tore apart in the middle of a road.

The gunmen got out of their vehicle wielding AR-15 rifles, prompting the Chief to get out of his vehicle and asked what was going on, but without saying a word, the sicarios shot him at close range, striking him dozen of times, tearing up his head and half of his body from the Waist up, leaving dead in the middle of the road. The gunmen then fled toward the city of Taretan.

The attack was the first slaying of a police chief in 2011, although 12 other homicides attributed to organized crime occurred in the first six days of the new year.

Taretan is located 107 kilometers (65 miles) east of Morelia, Michoacan’s capital, and is contiguous with Uruapan, the state’s second-largest city.

The state is home to the powerful La Familia Michoacana cartel, which has fought a bloody battle with the rival Los Zetas gang for control of the region, where marijuana and opium poppies are widely grown on rural hillsides.

Experts rank La Familia – considered Mexico’s largest trafficker of synthetic drugs and a major source of the crystal meth consumed in the United States – as one of Mexico’s most powerful drug-trafficking organizations, along with the Sinaloa, Gulf, Juarez and Los Zetas mobs.

President Felipe Calderon militarized the struggle against the drug cartels shortly after taking office in late 2006, deploying tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers nationwide.

Since then, turf battles and settlings of scores among rival drug gangs, as well as cartel enforcers’ clashes with security forces, have claimed more than 30,000 lives.

The Mexican government has consistently maintained that its war against drug trafficking is necessary to halt the advance of these criminal organizations, but acknowledges that the wave of violence will continue for the foreseeable future.

February 2011

Police chief in Nuevo Laredo is murdered

[pic]Thursday, February 3, 2011

Gunmen murdered the recently installed police chief in the border city of Nuevo Laredo shortly before midnight Wednesday in a direct challenge to the new state governor's vow to end the gangland mayhem in the troubled state bordering south Texas.

Manuel Farfan Carriola, 55, a retired army brigadier general, was gunned down in his pickup truck as he drove from police headquarters to his home in the city that shares the Rio Grande with Laredo. At least two of the general's police bodyguards and his personal secretary were also killed.

Farfan was one of 11 retired army generals named to head municipal police departments across Tamaulipas state. He took office with the change of city and state governments on Jan. 1. Upon taking office New Years Day, Tamaulipas Gov. Egidio Torre had vowed upon taking office that his government would put an end to a "cruel, unjust and difficult" wave of violence.

"We know this is a new beginning, a new opportunity," Torre said, "because it being a new administration in an era of renovating the state with all our strength and all our will."

Torre was elected following last June's assassination by gangsters of his brother, the gubernatorial candidate of the state's long ruling party.

Mexico's extreme criminal violence, which has killed some 34,000 people in the past four years, erupted with the murder of another Nuevo Laredo police chief in 2005 who was gunned down just seven hours after taking office.

But Tamaulipas state had remained relatively quiet as violence raged elsewhere since 2006 until last February, when former gangster allies from the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, the cartels former enforcers, fell into bitter warfare.

The violence claimed more than 900 lives across the state last year, according to the government's tally, including 115 in Nuevo Laredo.

Farfan's murder comes amid a wave of gangland attacks on police departments from the city of Monterrey, about 130 miles south of Laredo, to the border. Last week the entire police department of General Teran, an town southeast of Monterrey, resigned after two officers were kidnapped and beheaded by gangsters.

Security Chief of Monterrey Prison found Mutilated

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The security chief of a prison in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey has been murdered, officials say.

Police found the dismembered body of Francisco Martinez Ramirez in a plastic box inside a car abandoned near the Topo Chico prison.

Mr Martinez Ramirez, 60, who had worked there for three decades and was nearing retirement, had been abducted on Friday.

He is the third employee to be murdered at the jail in recent months.

The Topo Chico prison has also been the target of a series of grenade attacks.

Drug cartels wield considerable influence over Mexico's prisons, through their ability to bribe and threaten guards.

Criminal message

Mr Martinez Ramirez's family said armed men broke into his home on Friday afternoon and kidnapped him.

In the early hours of Saturday, locals reported an abandoned vehicle in the car park of a pharmacy near the prison.

On the back seat, police found a plastic box with Mr Martinez Ramirez's mutilated remains.

Police say a message from a criminal gang was pinned to the box, but did not say what the message was.

March 2011

Police Chief’s 4 Bodyguards Killed in Chilpancingo

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Armed men attacked a police chief in Guerrero, a state in southern Mexico, wounding the official and killing four of his bodyguards, state officials said.

The gunmen attacked Guerrero Northern Zone police chief Humberto Velazquez Delgado on Monday afternoon in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero.

The police chief and his bodyguards were attacked around 3:00 p.m. by gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles when they reached a curve on the Chilpancingo-Cuernavaca federal highway, state police director Fernando Monreal said.

“The assailants were waiting for them and ambushed them” about five kilometers (3.1 miles) north of Chilpancingo, Monreal said.

State police officers Agustin Ocampo, Jaime Palacios, Hermenegildo Morales and Carlos Gallardo, who were assigned to the station in Iguala de la Independencia, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Chilpancingo, were killed.

Velazquez was taken to a private hospital for treatment of his wounds.

Investigators found at least 400 bullet casings from AK-47s at the crime scene, officials said.

The motive for the attack has not been determined, but it may be linked to organized crime.

State police and army troops launched a search for the gunmen.

Mexico has been plagued by drug-related violence for years.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 34,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.

Police Chief Murdered in Western Mexico

Friday, March 11, 2011

The chief of police in the western Mexican town of Santiago Tangamandapio was found murdered Thursday, a spokesman for the Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office told Efe.

The body of Jorge Nuñez Espinoza was discovered by passersby shortly before 8:00 a.m. lying next to his official vehicle in rural spot known as Potrero Viejo.

Nuñez, who went missing Wednesday night, was shot once in the head and three times in the chest, according to the AG’s office spokesman, who said investigators think the chief was “executed on the spot.”

Press accounts identified Nuñez as the third municipal police chief slain so far this year in Michoacan.

The same accounts mention the appearance in Michoacan’s major cities of signs proclaiming the emergence of a new gang calling itself the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar), which claims to be the heir to La Familia Michoacana, a multifaceted crime organization that ostensibly demobilized.

La Familia, infamous for decapitating and dismembering enemies and for its brazen attacks on the security forces, dominates the production of synthetic drugs such as crystal meth and also engages in kidnapping, extortion and other rackets.

Separately, six men and a woman died in drug-related violence in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.

Violence spiked in the area this week following the arrest of Benjamin Flores Reyes, a reputed leader of the Cartel Independiente de Acapulco.

Flores Reyes, who lived in the United States for more than 15 years and studied criminal psychology, was arrested on Sunday along with six accomplices.

Drug-related violence has hurt tourism in Acapulco, a popular destination for vacationing Mexicans and American college students on spring break.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 35,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

April 2011

Police Chief, 2 Bodyguards Killed in Veracruz

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A police chief and two of his bodyguards were killed and another police officer was wounded in an attack by suspected cartel gunmen in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Those deaths bring to nine the number of police officers killed by alleged members of criminal gangs in less than a month in different parts of Veracruz.

According to investigators’ reports, the police came under attack by six gunmen in the El Naranjito neighborhood of the town of Cosoleacaque.

The slain men were the deputy coordinator of the Minatitlan-Cosoleacaque Inter-Municipal Police force, Juan Moreno Lopez, and his bodyguards, Alvaro Olguin Chagala and Moises Ramos.

One police officer also was wounded and another has been reported missing.

Army soldiers and local police officers launched an operation to locate the assailants but it has not yet produced any results.

On April 4, a police chief and five officers under his command were killed in an armed clash with suspected cartel gunmen in a rural area outside the Veracruz town of El Higo, near the border with the violence-wracked northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

Veracruz has seen constant fighting over the past four months between different federal forces and suspected enforcers for drug traffickers.

The Mexican army and navy and the Federal Police have reported a total of 29 people slain in 10 gun battles in Veracruz state since January, all of them purported members of organized-crime gangs.

Most of those armed clashes took place in the northern part of Veracruz, near the border with Tamaulipas.

Mexico's Tamaulipas police chief replaced after killings

[pic]Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Mexican state of Tamaulipas has dismissed its head of security following the discovery of 145 bodies in mass graves earlier this month.

Former army Gen. Ubaldo Ayala Tinoco has been replaced by another former soldier, Capt Rafael Lomeli Martinez.

The state governor said the new chief would improve coordination with the army and federal police in the fight against drugs gangs.

The killings have been blamed on the Zetas drug cartel.

More than 20 suspected cartel members have been arrested in connection with the killings, including the alleged mastermind of the massacre.

But 16 state policemen have also been arrested on suspicion of protecting the criminals.

Battleground

Outgoing Tamaulipas security chief Gen. Ayala said he was stepping down because the state government had failed to provide increased pay and better equipment for the state police.

His replacement, Capt. Lomeli, was previously head of the Federal Police in Nuevo Leon, another northern border state where drug-related violence is rife.

He said he was committed to pacifying Tamaulipas, which is the scene of a bloody battle between the Zetas and the rival Gulf cartel, who are competing for control of drug smuggling routes into the US.

The mass graves containing 145 bodies were found in the municipality of San Fernando, near the US border.

Most of the victims are thought to have been abducted from long-distance buses travelling north to the US border.

The motive for the murders is unclear, but there is speculation the cartel gunmen may have killed men who refused to join their ranks.

The bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants were found in the same area last year.

Mastermind

On Saturday the Mexican navy captured Omar Martin Estrada - alias "El Kilo" - the suspected leader of the Zetas in San Fernando and alleged mastermind of the killings.

Forensic scientists have been working to identify the bodies, some of which have been taken to Mexico City.

Hundreds of people whose relatives have gone missing have gone to see if they can identify their family members among the dead.

The Mexican government says around 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon began deploying troops to fight the cartels in December 2006.

More than 5,000 people have been reported missing, according to Mexico's human rights commission.

May 2011

Chief, 10 Police Officers Kidnapped in Nuevo Leon

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The police chief of Apodaca, a city in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, and 10 of his bodyguards were kidnapped over the weekend by gunmen, officials said.

“We have 11 people missing in the city of Apodaca,” including police chief Milton Alvarado Rojas, Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz said in a press conference on Monday.

“We have a verbal report that was filed last Saturday. We are conducting an investigation,” the governor said, adding that he could not reveal any other information about the investigation.

Three officers who served as bodyguards for Alvarado Rojas were kidnapped last Thursday, officials in Apodaca, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, told Efe.

One of the officers later called the chief and asked him to negotiate his release with an organized crime group at an address in the neighboring city of Juarez.

Alvarado Rojas went to the address on Saturday with seven other bodyguards to rescue the kidnapped officers and the group has been missing since then.

The latest kidnappings bring to 18 the number of police officers abducted this year in the Monterrey metro area by drug cartels.

Seven state police officers were kidnapped on March 12 in Guadalupe, another suburb of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon.

Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas state have been rocked by a wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s involvement in kidnappings, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans willing to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.

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