Thread: Mexican police neutralize car bomb in border city

Mexican police neutralize car bomb in border city
AP
MEXICO CITY -Mexican police carried out the controlled detonation of a car bomb Saturday in the troubled border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from Texas.

A phone tip around midnight led authorities to a dead body in a car in a shopping center parking lot, the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement. In a second car, police found the bomb.

Agents deactivated the device and removed most of the explosive material to analyze it before safely detonating the vehicle, the department said. There were no injuries.

Juarez is the same city where drug traffickers staged the first successful car bombing in Mexico, killing three people in July.

There have been three other vehicle explosions in recent weeks in Ciudad Victoria, capital of the border state of Tamaulipas.
Ciudad, across from El Paso, Texas, has been one of the cities most affected by Mexico's drug violence. More than 2,100 people have been murdered there so far this year — putting it on pace to surpass its previous high of 2,700, set last year.

Across the country, more than 28,000 people have been killed since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against the cartels soon after taking office.
In the central state of Morelos, police discovered nine bodies in clandestine graves Saturday in the same area where four more were recently found.

The Public Safety Department said in a separate statement that the latest victims were believed to have been killed on the orders of U.S.-born Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal, one of the alleged kingpins fighting for control of Morelos.

Valdez was captured Aug. 30 by federal police

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Mexican police probe Juarez car bomb possibly intended for authorities

By Nick Valencia, CNNSeptember 14, 2010 -- Updated 0006 GMT (0806 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A car bomb was located over the weekend after a phone call
Authorities believe it might have been intended for responders to the call
The bomb was disarmed with a controlled explosion


(CNN) -- Mexican authorities on Monday were still investigating who was responsible for a car bomb found in Ciudad Juarez and later disarmed with a controlled explosion by federal police.

The car bomb was located during the overnight hours Friday near an industrial park after police received an emergency call saying someone had been executed, according to a bulletin released by federal police. A second car with a body in it was also located at the scene.

The call was believed to be a luring tactic to bring authorities to the scene where the car bomb was planted, a federal police spokesman said.

"We used a controlled explosion to neutralize the threat," federal police spokesman Ramon Salinas said.

Local reports said Tovex, a water gel explosive often used in mining, was located inside the car. The material also was used in a fatal car bomb attack by a drug gang in Juarez in July.

"The investigation is no longer in our hands. We were the first responders, but now the investigation is in the hands of the attorney general's office," Salinas said of the latest incident.

On Monday, the Chihuahua attorney general's office did not answer repeated calls by CNN inquiring about information into the investigation.

In April, after federal police took over security in Juarez from the Mexican military, ambush-style attacks against the police increased. More than two dozen attacks have occurred against the federal police since April, according to Salinas.

Juarez is Mexico's most violent city, averaging eight to 11 murders a day in 2010, federal police said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/ameri ... .car.bomb/