Posted on 04/28/2009 2:37:31 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
TIJUANA, Mexico — Seven police officers were assassinated in about an hour's time in what authorities said Tuesday was a coordinated effort that followed months of relative calm in a border city stricken by drug-fueled violence. Three officers were injured.
Municipal police detained three or four people after Monday night's attacks, said Jose Manuel Yepiz, spokesman for the Baja California state attorney general's office. He did not have additional details.
After four officers were killed by gunfire outside a convenience store, police scanners hummed with "narcocorridos," or drug ballads. One voice threatened over the airwaves that 30 officers would be killed.
One officer was shot dead in each of three attacks that followed, including one at a police station, Yepiz said.
The killings come as Mayor Jorge Ramos intensifies an effort to rid the police department of corrupt officers.
The city has fired 248 police officers accused of corruption since Ramos took office in December 2006 and about 130 others are suspended pending review for possible dismissal, said Julian Leyzaola, the city's public safety secretary. The city has 2,160 officers.
Leyzaola said in an interview last week that about 15 Tijuana police officers had been killed on the job during Ramos' administration.
Nine police officers were killed last year in neighboring Playas de Rosarito, a city of 130,000 people, including about 14,000 U.S. citizens, Mayor Hugo Torres said. Seven or eight were involved in drug trafficking, he said.
Monday's killings were one of the most brazen since a period of bloodshed that claimed more than 400 lives in the last three months of 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Between the cartel wars and the “swine flu”, it could spell the end of Mexico.
Hmmmm.....10 inches of rain and some distributor risked his life to deliver this rag? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Ex Houston Chronicle paper boy here, we aim to please.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.