http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6254358.html

Cancun's top cop is grilled in retired general's killing
Probe widens in crimefighter's assassination
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 9, 2009, 11:23PM


MEXICO CITY — Federal agents detained Cancun’s police chief and six other policemen Monday as an investigation deepened into the torture-murder of a retired general hired to lead a special unit targeting the resort city’s gangsters.

Francisco Velasco, nicknamed the Viking, was taken into custody for questioning after scores of Mexican soldiers, backed by two armored cars, seized control of the city’s police headquarters. Velasco was flown to Mexico City, where anti-drug prosecutors were to interrogate him, officials said.

The former general, Mauro Tello, 63, and two associates were abducted in Cancun and found shot to death in a pickup outside the city on Feb. 3, the day after Cancun Mayor Gregorio Sanchez presented him to the City Council as the newly hired public security adviser. Tello had been expected to set up an elite unit to fight gangsters in Cancun and eventually to take over the police department.

Velasco was suspended from duty but was not immediately named a suspect in Tello’s killing or charged with the crime.

Sanchez said the chief’s removal had been arranged with state and federal authorities. “They will notify us later if he is arraigned or was simply called for questioning,â€