Thread: 7 Mexican agents seeking arms cache die in shootout

May 28, 2008, 4:19AM
7 Mexican agents seeking arms cache die in shootout


By KEN ELLINGWOOD
Los Angeles Times

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MEXICO CITY — Seven Mexican federal agents looking for an arms cache died early Tuesday in a shootout with gunmen in the northern state of Sinaloa, officials said.

The agents came under fire when they went to search a home in Culiacan, the state capital. Four other agents were wounded.

At least one gunman was reported killed during the confrontation, which came as a wave of drug-related violence has washed over Mexico. Two suspects were arrested, the federal Public Security Ministry said in a statement.

Authorities seized seven AK-47 assault rifles, dozens of ammunition clips and 500 bullets. A photograph released by authorities after the shooting of the two-story house showed its white exterior peppered with bullet holes.

The state has registered more than 200 killings this year, mainly as a result of a power struggle within one of Mexico's biggest drug gangs, the so-called Sinaloa cartel.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon dispatched 2,000 soldiers and federal agents to Sinaloa two weeks ago, the latest deployment in his government's 18-month-old drive against organized crime.

Drug-trafficking gangs have struck hard at police since the crackdown began. A faction of the Sinaloa group is suspected in the assassination in Mexico City this month of the Federal Preventive Police agency's acting chief, Edgar Millan Gomez.

Calderon argues that the ferocity of the attacks against the government is a sign that the administration is making headway in an anti-crime campaign he often refers to as a "war."

In Sinaloa, for example, troops and police have captured several mid- and upper-level gang members and seized drug shipments and more than 100 aircraft over the past 18 months.

The nation's attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, said last week that 1,378 people had died this year in drug-related violence. That number is 47 percent higher than the murder rate during the same period in 2007.

Medina Mora said 450 soldiers, police officers and other security officials were among the 4,152 people to have died in drug-related violently since Calderon launched his anti-crime drive on taking office in December 2006. Local police are often on the payroll of drug traffickers, placing them in the cross hairs of rival gangs.

Much of the recent violence has taken place along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Sinaloa, a longtime hub for drug traders seeking to move marijuana, cocaine and other narcotics into the United States.

The mountainous state is stronghold of suspected drug baron Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, but a group of former allies has broken away, spurring a recent spate of killings.

Cecilia Sanchez of the Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.





http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5805091.html

Something just ain't right down there. Either Calderons Troops are a show or the Cartels do run the country . I do know i don't want my tax dollars in that black hole of corruption .

If Calderon is stating Mexico is at war why are we not protecting our border?