Reuters AlertNet Lite - Soldiers arrest Mexican police in anti-drugs swoop

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Soldiers arrest Mexican police in anti-drugs swoop

16 Apr 2007 22:53:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

MONTERREY, Mexico, April 16 (Reuters) - Mexican troops arrested more than 100 policemen on Monday as part of a national drive against powerful drug gangs and the police officers on their payrolls.

Soldiers and police swept into more than a dozen local police stations across the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, which was for long one of Mexico's more peaceful regions but has seen a wave of execution-style killings in the past year.

Nuevo Leon's state government, which deployed police units alongside army troops in the sweep, said more than 100 police were arrested and would be investigated

Television images showed the captured cops being driven in buses to a makeshift detention center at a police training center.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to crime hot spots along Mexico's border with the United States and other cities including the Pacific resort of Acapulco where drug-smuggling cartels are locked in fierce turf battles.

Rival cartels often use their extraordinary wealth to bribe poorly paid police to turn a blind eye to their activities. Police officers who refuse the money or get on the wrong side of the traffickers are increasingly being targeted.

About 2,000 people were killed last year as violence spiraled around a feud between gangsters loyal to kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman and the rival Gulf cartel. Another 600 people have been executed so far this year.

Nuevo Laredo and its wealthy capital Monterrey had for long escaped the bloodshed of Mexico's drug wars, but cartels now fighting for control of the state have killed about 50 people this year, many of them police officers.

Mexican media said 20 victims of gang-related executions were found on Monday. Several had been tortured and shot at point blank range.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• Mexico profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• Christian Aid joins green.tv
Christian Aid - UK

• Global internal displacement crisis worsens - survey
NRC - Norway

• Christian Aid comment on 5 April Gleneagles event
Christian Aid - UK

• Governments must invest to help poor people adapt to climate change
CARE International - UK

• Beware of hidden strings on EU's offer on trade
Christian Aid - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

• Soldiers arrest Mexican police in anti-drugs swoop

• US donates 'dirty bomb' detectors to Mexican ports

• Mexican bus crash kills 24

• At least 21 killed in Mexican bus crash

• Thorny Mexican food staple gains fame as folk cure

MORE >>

Last updated:Mon Apr 16 22:54:07 2007