http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... lence.html

Female police officer shot to death in violent Mexican border town

5:21 p.m. August 10, 2005

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – A female police officer was shot to death by assailants and a woman identified as an a former municipal officer was wounded in the violence-plagued border city of Nuevo Laredo on Wednesday.

Killings and shooting sprees in Nuevo Laredo have become so bad – featuring assault rifles, heavy machine guns and even bazookas – that the United States closed its consulate here briefly, before re-opening it this week.


The wounded former officer, Maria de la Paz Rangel, was listed in serious condition at a local hospital with bullet wounds to the shoulder and arm, state police commander Jose Wenceslao Gaznares said.

Her friend, policewoman Adriana de Leon Martinez, was just getting off work when unidentified gunmen intercepted the car both women were traveling in at a stoplight and opened fire, killing De Leon Martinez, who worked as a police radio operator.

De la Paz Rangel had been fired after she failed to show up for work when federal agents briefly took over duties in the city.

Two gunmen in a gray compact car carried out the killing in a heavily traveled area near a school and just a few hundred yards (meters) from the city's downtown.

Since January, more than 100 people have been slain in Nuevo Laredo, a city of about 350,000 people across U.S. border from Laredo, Texas.

Authorities say the violence stems from a war between two powerful drug cartels for control of smuggling routes.

On June 8, the city's then-police chief was gunned down within hours of taking office, prompting President Vicente Fox to send hundreds of soldiers and federal agents to Nuevo Laredo to restore order.