Thread: Top Mexican police officer killed, sixth in week

Top Mexican police officer killed, sixth in week
Sat May 10, 2008 1:58pm EDT
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, May 10 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and killed a police chief of this Mexican border city early on Saturday, police said, the sixth high-ranking officer killed in the country in less than a week.

Juan Antonio Roman was shot outside his home as he stepped out of his pickup truck, a spokesman for the local police told Reuters. He was the number two policeman in the city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

President Felipe Calderon is struggling to reduce rampant violence even though he has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police around the country to bring powerful drug cartels under control.

More than 2,500 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico last year. Some 1,100 people have died so far this year as the drug gangs battle each other and security forces.

Hired gunmen believed to be in the pay of the Sinaloa cartel murdered Edgar Millan, one of the country's top federal policemen, at his home on Thursday.

Hours before Millan's funeral on Friday, Esteban Robles, a senior detective in Mexico City, was gunned down in front of his apartment, shot seven times in the head, neck and chest.

Two other senior policemen were shot in the capital in recent days, and drug hit men killed Saul Pena, a top police officer in Ciudad Juarez. (Reporting by Ignacio Alvarado; Editing by Xavier Briand)






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Published Saturday May 10, 2008
Top policeman killed in northern Mexico
By MARINA MONTEMAYOR Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1000&u_sid=10253528

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) - The No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across from Texas was shot dead Saturday, the latest high-ranking official killed in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown.

Gunman sprayed Juan Antonio Roman Garcia's car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad Juarez, officials said. The attack came months after his name appeared at the top of a hit list left at a monument for fallen police officers.

Mexico has been shaken by a wave of drug-related violence as gangs battle security forces and each other for control of trafficking routes north.

The son of suspected Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman was killed in a shootout Thursday in another northern city. The same day, Mexico's acting federal police chief, Edgar Millan Gomez, was gunned down in front of his Mexico City home.

President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the attacks against police showed weakened gangs were trying to counter his fight against drug trafficking. Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has sent more than 25,000 soldiers into states throughout Mexico to combat drug gangs.

More than 200 people have been killed this year in Ciudad Juarez, a Chihuahua state city of 1.3 million across from El Paso, Texas, that is home base for the Juarez cartel. The government deployed more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to Chihuahua in March.

Several people on the hit list have been killed, and none of the perpetrators have been caught. Government officials displayed video footage of the list at a news conference Saturday, with Roman Garcia's name at the top.

"His death has plunged the city into mourning because he was an exemplary officer with an impeccable 20-year record who fulfilled his duties until his last breath, despite the dangers," said Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz.

Although he vowed his government would not be intimidated, Ferriz said all police officers had been ordered to take added precautions. "We know that organized crime will keep up the violence," he said.

More than 2,500 people have died across Mexico this year in crime and drug-related violence.

Joaquin Guzman's son, Edgar, was shot dead in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan on Thursday, according an official with the federal Attorney General's office who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Mexican media reports said gunmen opened fire on Edgar Guzman in the parking lot of a shopping center. About 500 bullet casings from AK-47 rifles were found at the site, El Universal and Reforma newspapers reported.

Also killed in the attack was Arturo Meza Cazares. Meza is the son of Blanca Margarita Cazares, whom the U.S. has identified as a key money launderer for the cartel.

Joaquin Guzman escaped from prison in 2001 and allegedly started a turf war that has killed hundreds of people. He is one of Mexico's most-wanted fugitives, and U.S. authorities have offered a US$5 million (euro3.2 million) reward for his capture.

___

Associated Press writer Alexandra Olson contributed to his report from Mexico City.

Mark my word, if we do not get the illegals out of the US fast, THIS will be happening in the US, too.