Two policemen shot, bodies dumped on Mexico highway
21 May 2008 19:24:09 GMT Source: Reuters
By Cyntia Barrera Diaz MEXICO CITY, May 21 (Reuters) - Two Mexican policemen were shot and their bodies dumped in a car on a busy Mexico City-bound highway, police said on Wednesday, the latest in a spurt of brutal drug gang murders near the capital. The bodies, which showed torture marks, were left with death threats directed at anyone backing powerful drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man. They were found late on Tuesday in the trunk of a car abandoned on the Cuernavaca-Mexico City highway, a route used by commuters between the capital and the small colonial city where many have weekend homes."This is what will happen to those hanging out with El Chapo and El Mayo Zambada," one of the messages left with the bodies read, according to the daily Reforma. The newspaper said the victims' hands and feet were bound. Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada is a key aide of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel that controls smuggling turf in northwestern Mexico. Amelio Gomez, head of Mexico City's judicial police, told Mexican radio the slain policemen worked in the nearby central state of Morelos. The two men were wrapped in bandages from the shoulders to the waist and one of them had been shot in the head at close range, Reforma said. Killings between rival drug gangs have soared in recent weeks and attacks in or near the capital are on the rise. The murder this month in Mexico City of a senior federal police chief in charge of drug investigations shocked the country. Another Mexican daily, El Universal, said Tuesday was the country's bloodiest day this year, with 34 drug killings. Some media reports say the spike in violence could be due to a fracture within Guzman's cartel as one of its boldest operatives, Arturo Beltran Leyva, seeks to establish his own drug empire. Beltran's brother, Alfredo, was captured by Mexican troops in January after a tip-off from Guzman in exchange for the release of one of his sons from jail, media reports say. The recent killing of another of Guzman's sons, which experts think may have been ordered by the Beltran Leyva gang, and the arrest of one of his cousins are believed to have triggered more violence from the Sinaloa cartel. Last month, police arrested nine alleged Sinaloa cartel members after a gunbattle that killed two police officers. The operation was spearheaded by regional commissioner Edgar Millan, the police chief ambushed and shot dead a week later. Five more police chiefs have been killed in May. Calderon has deployed some 25,000 troops and federal police to combat drug cartels since taking office in late 2006, but his campaign has failed to curb violence. Some 1,300 people have been killed in drug-related murders this year. (Editing by Catherine Bremer)
A car decorated with the image of drug dealer patron saint Jesus Malverde is seen at a parking lot in the northwestern city of Culiacan May 14, 2008. Violence has exploded ...
