Reuters AlertNet Lite - Guatemala govt links drug gang, politician slayings

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Guatemala govt links drug gang, politician slayings

23 Feb 2007 18:17:20 GMT
Source: Reuters

GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A drug-smuggling gang is responsible for the brutal killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Guatemala this week, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger said in comments published on Friday.

"The latest report I received (says) it was a drug-trafficking gang with ties to both countries," Berger told Guatemala's Prensa Libre daily.

On Thursday, Guatemala arrested four policemen accused of murdering the three members of Central America's regional parliament, along with their driver.

The policemen, who included the head of Guatemala's organized crime investigation unit, were caught because a global positioning system transmitter in their vehicle revealed they were at the scene of the kidnapping and the site where the bodies were found.

Berger said he hoped two more policemen would be arrested soon.

Both the Guatemalan national police and the regional parliament have been mired in drug-trafficking scandals in recent years with some congressmen accused of using their official status to smuggle narcotics.

In 2003 a Honduran member of the regional parliament was convicted of trafficking several kilos of heroin in his car.

Other Central American politicians accused of corruption in their own countries have used immunity from prosecution offered by the Central American parliament to avoid trial.

Guatemala's National Civil Police, set up in 1997 in the wake of the country's civil war, has frequently been linked to organized crime.

In 2002 the police anti-narcotics squad was disbanded after agents were found to have stolen tonnes of confiscated cocaine from a police warehouse.

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Last updated:Fri Feb 23 18:17:05 2007