Drug-related violence claims Mexican official

LA Times ^ | 5/14/07 | Hector Tobar, Times Staff Writer

[BurbankKarl]

The newly appointed head of a drug intelligence unit in the Mexican attorney general's office was shot and killed today on a street here as apparent drug-related violence continued unabated across the country.

Over the weekend, two journalists for the Azteca television network were reported missing and assumed kidnapped in the northern city of Monterrey and an army captain was kidnapped and slain in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state. Both regions have been seen increasing violence as drug cartels fight each other, police and the army.

Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix had been appointed a month ago to head an intelligence unit specializing in analyzing the activities of the nation's drug cartels, officials said. He was shot in his car just outside an office of the attorney general in the southern Coyoacan district of Mexico City.

Lugo Felix had previously run a unit in the attorney general's office specializing in the investigation of child and immigrant smuggling, authorities said. According to news reports, witnesses said he was driving a sport-utility vehicle when he was ambushed by men in another vehicle. He was shot five times.

In Monterrey, reporter Gamaliel Lopez Candanosa and cameraman Gerardo Paredes Perez have not been seen since Thursday, Azteca television said in a news release Sunday.

The two men were last seen after covering a Mother's Day event on Thursday, the television network said. Dozens of police officers and government officials have been killed in the Monterrey area in the past year.

[TheKidster]

That’s the price for going against the US/Mexican Govt. enforced black market monopoly on narcotics. Too much $$ to be made.