Mexican Gangsters In 200-Man Gun Battle
12:19pm UK, Thursday June 11, 2009
Three suspected drugs cartel hitmen and a police officer have been killed
during a shootout in northern Mexico involving more than 200 people.
Soldiers guard an ambulance carrying people injured during a gun battle in
Durango, northern Mexico
Soldiers guard ambulance carrying people injured during the gun battle
The gunfight lasted more than two hours after police were attacked with
bullets and grenades when they arrived at a property in the city of
Durango.
One of the drugs suspects who died was identified as Israel Sanchez Corral,
the group's contact with the head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, federal
police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez said.
Authorities in drug-plagued Durango say the La Familia cartel is trying to
expand its operations from Michoacan state, where it is based.
The gun battle followed a tense stand-off in Monterrey on Monday between
heavily-armed federal police and local officers.
The confrontation started after the federal officers arrived to disperse
the local police, who were blocking several streets in two suburbs of
Mexico's third largest city.
It came after the arrest of a policewoman who is allegedly a high-ranking
member of the Gulf drug cartel.
Federal police officers pay tribute to their colleague who was killed in
Durango
Officers pay tribute to dead colleague
A day after the incident, a law was passed to ban Monterrey police officers
from carrying personal mobile phones while on duty, to prevent corrupt
officers communicating with drug gangs.
Meanwhile, federal officers in the central state of Morelos detained nine
local police officers on suspicion of protecting and sharing information
with the Beltran Leyva cartel.
They were seized as part of a series raids on police and public officials
accused of collaborating with drug cartels ahead of mid-term elections in
July.
More than 7,700 people have been killed in suspected drugs violence in
Mexico since the start of 2008. |