Thread: Gunmen kill public safety director for central Mexican state

What do you know another public execution in Mexico.

www.signonsandiego.com

Gunmen kill public safety director for central Mexican state


ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:49 p.m. September 16, 2005

MEXICO CITY – A group of men with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant Friday and killed the director of public safety for the central state of Michoacan, authorities said.
Rogelio Zarazua was eating with his wife around 5:30 p.m. in the colonial city of Morelia, the Michoacan capital 135 miles (215 kilometers) west of Mexico City, when three men wearing black opened fire, Gabriel Mendoza, the state's Public Safety Secretary, told reporters.

One of Zarazua's bodyguards was killed during a volley of shots as the gunmen fled the restaurant. At least one other was seriously wounded, according to police.

Michoacan Gov. Lazaro Cardenas Batel visited the scene of the attack, which came during a national holiday for Independence Day, but no arrests were made.

Investigators said hit men working for drug smuggling gangs known to operate across Michoacan were likely involved, but did not publicly discuss a motive.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... ion18.html

Police official killed in restaurant attack

'Narcoviolence' suspected in slaying

Hector Tobar
Los Angeles Times
Sept. 18, 2005 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - Federal and local police swept across Michoacan on Saturday, hunting for the gunmen who assassinated the southern state's head of public safety at a crowded restaurant during a birthday dinner.

Rogelio Zarazua Ortega, civilian overseer of Michoacan's police force, was shot Friday night as he sat at a table with two dozen friends and relatives. Also gunned down was one of Zarazua's bodyguards.

Federal officials said Saturday they believe the pair were the latest victims in a war between the nation's two most powerful drug cartels fighting each other and the police over lucrative trade in marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine.

More than 215 killings have been carried out in Michoacan by the drug gangs, officials say. Across Mexico, violence linked to cartels has claimed more than 1,000 lives this year, with victims including the police chief in Juarez, who was murdered just hours after he was sworn into office in June.

Witnesses said two hit men carried out the slayings Friday night in a residential district of the state capital, Morelia. The men entered the restaurant armed with AK-47 rifles.

Zarazua was shot at least a dozen times in the chest and neck, according to local news reports.

Lazaro Cardenas Batel, the governor of Michoacan, arrived at the scene shortly afterward, promising to bring the killers to justice.

Last week, Mexican President Vicente Fox sent army troops to help patrol Acapulco, the largest city in Guerrero state, after a spate of drug-related violence that has seen local police stations attacked at least four times with hand grenades.

On Thursday, a police officer became the eighth officer murdered by suspected drug cartel gunmen in Acapulco this year.

In Michoacan, the killing of Zarazua came after an especially bloody week of suspected "narcoviolence" that saw at least 15 people murdered in cities and towns across the state.

Police officials in Michoacan have said that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel are fighting for control of marijuana and opium poppy fields, along with a growing number of laboratories producing methamphetamine. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman leads the Sinaloa Cartel, while the Gulf Cartel's ranks include former army soldiers known as the "Zetas."

The newspaper Cambio de Michoacan reported Saturday that Zarazua had received a series of threats, by phone and in letters, warning him not to "damage the interests" of the drug cartels.

During Zarazua's 11 months in office, Michoacan state police raided seven drug labs in Morelia and arrested three suspected "Zeta" hit men.

On Friday, a nationwide holiday celebrating Mexican independence, Zarazua was sitting in a private banquet room near the back of the Las Trojes restaurant. The gunmen, dressed in black, yelled out, "Nobody move!" then opened fire on Zarazua, according to local news reports. He was killed instantly.

None of the other guests at the table, including Zarazua's wife, was injured.

The gunmen then fled outside to a pickup truck, where at least four associates were waiting. The assailants then exchanged fire with Zarazua's security detail, which was stationed outside the restaurant.

Police officer Cesar Bautista Jimenez was killed in the resulting gunbattle, which left two other officers seriously wounded.

Several other local police and security chiefs have been murdered in Mexico this year.

On Sept. 11, suspected drug cartel hit men killed the commander of the special investigative police in Victoria, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Four days earlier, hit men assassinated the police chief of Cancun.