Nuevo Laredo police chief slain by gunmen

Laredo Morning Times
Published: 10:41 a.m., Thursday, February 3, 2011

NUEVO LAREDO— The city's newest police chief was killed late Wednesday night when unknown assailants blocked off a downtown street shortly after he had left police headquarters and machine-gunned his vehicle.

Manuel Farfan Carriola, a retired Mexican Army general, had been outspoken about fighting crime in his city, especially drug traffickers who are fighting for control of lucrative illegal trading routes. He was named to the position when the new mayor, Benjamin Galvan Gomez, took office on Jan. 1.

Farfan Carriola was usually accompanied by several bodyguards and a personal assistant. Early reports indicated that some of those men may also have died in the attack but that could not be confirmed this morning.

An emergency Nuevo Laredo City Council meeting has been called, and a city spokesman said state officials were on their way to the border city to directly handle the investigation into the assassination. The spokesman deferred all comment to the state officials, who were en route and unavailable for immediate comment.

This is not the first time Nuevo Laredo has suffered such an attack. In June 2005, Alejandro DomÃ*nguez Coello was killed the same day he was named chief of police in the midst of a violent struggle among drug traffickers for control of Nuevo Laredo.

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