Posted on 05/15/2007 4:25:42 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
NUEVO LAREDO — Nearly 200 additional soldiers and AFI agents descended on the Sister City on Sunday, barely two days after four men — including a federal highway patrol officer — were found executed with warnings from one drug cartel to another.Neither the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (known as AFI, an agency similar to the United States’ FBI), nor the federal Defense Department would provide information about the operation, but new checkpoints were seen in various parts of the city.
Witnesses saw military vehicles rumbling into the city Sunday afternoon as they crossed the 26-kilometer marker of the National Highway. Seven buses, an ambulance and four Hummer-style armored vehicles were directed to the Army’s headquarters on the western side of the city.
Guillermo Landa Gudiño, interim director of the city’s public safety department, said Monday he was aware of the influx of federal agents and soldiers, but said he doesn’t know their specific assignments.
“They are coordinating directly with the C4 department,” Landa said, referring to the city’s central law enforcement command. “They are not communicating directly with us. We know there is a contingent of 180 federal (agents and soldiers), nothing else.”
Also Monday, officials released the identities of two of the four people who were found executed in two different parts of the city early Friday morning.
Carlos Pacheco Sánchez, 38, of Mexico City, was a federal highway patrol officer assigned to the Nuevo Laredo area. He was identified by fellow agents.
His body was found along with two others thrown near a bridge in the 150 Aniversario neighborhood. All three had been badly beaten and then shot.
The second victim identified was Fermín Rivera Rodríguez, 48, of Rodríguez, Nuevo León. The unemployed homeless man was identified by family members who saw his body in photos published by newspapers in his home state.
Rivera, who was shot several times and also had been badly beaten, was found near the entrance to a maquiladora.
The names of the other two victims found at 150 Aniversario still were not known Monday night, but officials were hoping that distinctive tattoos on their bodies would help identify them.
Los dos Laredos!
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