Posted on 12/30/2007 1:12:24 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
MONTERREY, Mexico — In another cruel display of organized crime firepower, a heavily armed commando attacked a police convoy in the central state of Zacatecas , killing seven police officers and freeing two alleged kidnappers, federal police said Saturday.
The attack Friday appeared to be retaliation for the arrests of the kidnap suspects hours earlier, during which a fourth suspect died while exchanging fire with police, according to the federal Attorney General's office, or PGR.
The killings capped a bloody year in Mexico's brutal drug gang war, which claimed more than 2,200 lives in 2007, including scores of law enforcers.
The commando ambushed police near the town of Jerez as state detectives transported three kidnapping suspects to a state prison.
Six detectives and one traffic official died in the ambush. Two detectives were wounded, officials said.
The attackers freed suspects Alejandro Gallegos López and Nicolás Pérez Alvarado, said the PGR.
Detainee Jorge Hernández Pineda, was transported by helicopter to Mexico City as the PGR's narcotics and organized crime division took over the case.
Police didn't say who was behind the attack. But local media outlets reported that Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, are well established in the region.
The PGR said beat cops in the rural town of Tepechitlán, about 100 miles south of Zacatecas city, made the arrests earlier Friday after catching the four suspects in the act of kidnapping one person.
Police identified the suspect who died as Luis Guillermo Gálvez Muñoz.
The suspects were driving a late-model black pickup truck with Texas plates, according to the PGR, who said the unnamed kidnapping victim was released.
Police seized one AK-47 rifle, two AR-15 rifles, an unspecified number of handguns and 481 live rounds during the arrest.
Police in Tepechitlán declined to comment, referring inquiries to police in the neighboring city of Tlaltenango. Officials there deferred comment to state officials, who limited comment to a press release.
Police around Mexico regularly complain that they are outgunned by organized criminals who smuggle in weapons from the United States as they move narcotics northward.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mattson.sean@gmail.com
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
"The suspects were driving a late-model black pickup truck with Texas plates, according to the PGR..."
Maybe the Mexicans need to build some sort of impediment to stop free travel back and forth across the border. Maybe a really big fence would work.
You might be on to something.
The death toll in Mexico is rapidly approaching that of the day of infamy proclaimed so long ago by President Roosevelt. True, the day was spread over a year, but the breakdown of order and the devastating impact it has had on civil life in Mexico is as strongly felt as the attack on Pearl Harbor, and refugees swarm from their country.
If Mexico has a serious internal problem, it should be recognized for what it is, and the self-appointed militias should be brought back into support of domestic tranquillity. Either that, or disbanded as the outlaws and thugs they are.
Mexico is WAY overdue for an overhaul of the concepts of personal liberty and the opportunity to have and use their legacy of resources and property rights.
There may have to be a war of liberation for the Mexicans to find their way to some degree of personal freedom. The only question, who is it that shall fight that war?
hummm, a fence you say. Something like what the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES swore would be built? The one he blabbered on and on about being fully approved and how the funds had been allocated and it was a done deal?
I guess you are right, he must have meant a MEXICAN fence built with MEXICAN money on a MEXICAN timetable...
The faucet it is dripping and the fence is falling down
My pocket needs some money so I can't go into town
My brother he ain't working and my sister doesn't care
The car it needs a motor so I can't go anywhere
Manana manana manana is soon enough for me!
Commando? An odd use of the word. How about gangsters?
Oh yeah, and similar to the one at the WH in D.C.
Hell, the bad guys are probably Mexican police or military themselves.
A shame, as Zacatecas is one of the most beautiful cities in North America. Pink-stone architecture everywhere you go.
“Mexico is WAY overdue for an overhaul of the concepts of personal liberty and the opportunity to have and use their legacy of resources and property rights.”
From out point of view, but from the corrupt Mexican ruling class deals with the issues by telling its people the solution is in the USA, just across the border.
What better way to maintain corrupt power than by encouraging your potential revolutionary enemies to leave the country?
Leni
Maybe we should disband the Zetas in South Texas too?
Yes, Mexico does have a serious internal problem. Drug users in the United States pay for guns smuggled into the country to be used by gangsters supporting the narcotics habits of those north of the border.
“If we don’t stop th southern invasion this is exactly what they will try and do in our country!!!!!”
Will TRY to do? Hell, they’ve been doing it for years. There are entire areas in the US that are controlled by Mexican criminal elements, and it is expanding almost exponentially.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.