Mexico gunmen kill two top cops as drug war spreads
MONTERREY, Mexico, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Unknown gunmen shot dead two police chiefs in separate attacks in a normally peaceful state bordering Texas on Monday, in an apparent escalation of drug gang violence, prosecutors said.
Armed men burst into a police station in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, in Nuevo Leon state, and snatched police chief Javier Garcia at gunpoint in the mid-afternoon.
His handcuffed body was later found dumped outside town, shot in the back of the head.
Just hours later, gunmen shot dead Hector Ayala, the police chief of San Pedro Garza, a wealthy enclave of state capital Monterrey, as he was driving through the city in a sport utility vehicle at around 8:00 p.m. (0200 GMT)
Rival drug cartels have been battling for control of lucrative cocaine, marijuana and heroin smuggling routes to Texas from northeast Mexico in a bloody turf war which has killed hundreds of people in the past year.
Most of the violence has so far been limited to Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border in neighboring Tamaulipas state, where around 180 people were murdered in 2005, including some 20 active and former police officers.
Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Luis Carlos Trevino told a news conference the latest murders bore the hallmarks of organized crime. He added that police would be following leads linking the first shooting to crimes in Nuevo Laredo.
He did not say whether the two murders were linked.
President Vicente Fox declared "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels in January of last year. He sent hundreds of troops and federal police to cities along the U.S.-Mexican border to restore order, although gang violence has continued regardless.
Armed men burst into a police station in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, in Nuevo Leon state, and snatched police chief Javier Garcia at gunpoint in the mid-afternoon.
His handcuffed body was later found dumped outside town, shot in the back of the head.
Just hours later, gunmen shot dead Hector Ayala, the police chief of San Pedro Garza, a wealthy enclave of state capital Monterrey, as he was driving through the city in a sport utility vehicle at around 8:00 p.m. (0200 GMT)
Rival drug cartels have been battling for control of lucrative cocaine, marijuana and heroin smuggling routes to Texas from northeast Mexico in a bloody turf war which has killed hundreds of people in the past year.
Most of the violence has so far been limited to Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border in neighboring Tamaulipas state, where around 180 people were murdered in 2005, including some 20 active and former police officers.
Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Luis Carlos Trevino told a news conference the latest murders bore the hallmarks of organized crime. He added that police would be following leads linking the first shooting to crimes in Nuevo Laredo.
He did not say whether the two murders were linked.
President Vicente Fox declared "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels in January of last year. He sent hundreds of troops and federal police to cities along the U.S.-Mexican border to restore order, although gang violence has continued regardless.
posted by Marko at 2/13/2006 11:02:00 PM
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