Thread: Mexico gunmen take hostages after police murder

Mexico gunmen take hostages after police murder

(2008-07-13)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen dressed in police uniforms killed a police chief in the drug gang-ridden Mexican state of Sinaloa and then took dozens of restaurant patrons hostage for several hours before escaping, officials said.

Six armed men caused pandemonium in the Pacific port city of Mazatlan by taking refuge in a shopping mall to escape police and soldiers after they shot dead Sixto Escobedo when he resisted their attempt to kidnap him.

They took some 40 people hostage in a restaurant in the mall and eventually negotiated their escape with police.

"The alleged delinquents took hostages at a restaurant for several hours. There was a negotiation in which they got a vehicle for their exit. They took (two) hostages with them, then released them and escaped," a spokesman for the Sinaloa government told Reuters on Sunday.

Drug gang killings in Mexico have soared to unprecedented levels, with some 1,700 people dead so far this year, as an army-led crackdown ramps up turf wars, and hitmen are increasingly taking their battles public with daylight shootouts in busy streets.

Hitmen, who are known to sometimes don police gear, often dump bodies with torture marks or severed heads in public.

President Felipe Calderon launched a war on drug smugglers in December 2006 but opinion polls show many Mexicans worry he is failing to gain the upper hand on the cartels, who have grown bold enough to post threats or recruiting advertisements on street banners.

Sinaloa state in northwestern Mexico is one of the worst affected areas and home to Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Images on Mexican online media on Sunday, some captured by witnesses on their cell phones, showed frantic shoppers rushing away from the mall and screaming employees in the food mall seeking shelter as gun shots ring out.

Local media said Escobedo, who was shot when he refused to get in the gunmens' car, was a local police commander.

More than 500 policemen, including a handful of senior commanders, have been killed since Calderon's crackdown began.

(Reporting by Miguel Gutierrez and Cyntia Barrera Diaz, editing by David Wiessler)

© Copyright 2008, Reuters

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Oops, the cartels are now messing with tourist areas. Buh bye American tourists.