http://www.lmtonline.com/site/news.cfm? ... 9392&rfi=6


03/17/2006
In cold blood; Unknown attackers shoot feds dead in their car
By: VICENTE RANGEL , SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

NUEVO LAREDO - Just days after arriving here to help reinforce government efforts to stop the drug war
raging on the border, four federal agents were shot dead in the middle of the afternoon on Avenida Guerrero.
The agents never had a chance, observers said. At least one officer was armed, but didn't have time to pull
his weapon.
Calls came into C-4, the city's emergency headquarters, at about 2:25 p.m., with reports that gunfire had
broken out on Avenida Guerrero between Venustiano Carranza and 5 de Febrero streets. Several people were
reported to be dead in a vehicle.
State police and officers from several other agencies descended on the scene to find a gray Ford Focus with
four people inside, all dead in their seats.
Víctor Almanza, the state police agent on duty, immediately ordered state police to secure the area.
Investigators found at least 30 shell casings from an AK-47 in the area surrounding the vehicle.
According to one source, the four victims were among the hundreds of PFP agents, known by the Spanish initials of the
agency, who arrived Tuesday by air after federal and state officials meeting in Nuevo Laredo on Monday vowed to redouble
their efforts to take back control of the city streets.
The name of the driver was not released Thursday; he was carrying no identification. The other three
victims in the afternoon shooting had IDs, and their names were released by authorities.
Enrique Morán Delgado, 45, of Torreón, Coahuila, was sitting next to the driver and was found slumped
over in his seat.
Luis Antonio Palacios Tepox, believed to be between 30 and 35, was in the backseat, behind Morán
Delgado. Palacios Tepox was armed with a 9 mm pistol and had two fully loaded clips.
The fourth victim, who was sitting behind the driver, was identified as Guillermo Rodríguez, 35, of
Azcapotzalco, in the state of México.
Almanza ordered the bodies taken to a local funeral home for the autopsy required by law in all homicide
cases.
No arrests had been made as of late Thursday, and no witnesses had come forward publicly.
The four deaths were not the only homicides reported in the Sister City after a spate of virtually violence-
free days since last week.
At about 8:40 p.m. Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy died after he was shot five times near his home in the
Victoria neighborhood, close to the intersection of 20 de Noviembre and Hidalgo streets.
Mario Alberto Puga Pacheco was identified by his mother, Magdalena Pacheco Méndez, 39.
State police arrived to find that Puga Pacheco had been taken to Hospital General in a private vehicle. At
the scene, officers found five .45-caliber shell casings underneath a truck parked on the street and another
shell casing about 3 feet down the street.
The young man was shot once in the neck area, twice on the left side near his abdomen, once in the right
thigh and once in the buttocks. Officials were unable to interview him because he was already in surgery
when they arrived.
Puga Pacheco died at the hospital of his injuries at about 10 p.m.
Almanza, who was also on duty Wednesday night, ordered that the boy's body be taken to a local funeral
home for an autopsy.
No arrests have been made in the teen death case, either.
The last death before these five was the director of C-4, Ramiro Tellez Contreras, who was shot dead as he
was leaving his home the morning of Friday, March 10, for his second job as a radio news announcer.
The deaths on Wednesday and Thursday make at least 48 people who have died violently in Nuevo Laredo
since the start of the year, more than twice the number who died during the same period last year.