Posted on 02/14/2006 2:07:11 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Two police chiefs were shot and killed within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the United States where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes across the border.
It wasn't immediately clear if the killings Monday were related, but authorities say violence has spiked in Mexico's northeast since the 2003 arrest of the area's top reputed drug dealer set off the turf war.
Hector Ayala, chief of police in the wealthy town of San Pedro Garza Garcia outside Monterrey, was killed Monday when a car overtook his vehicle and opened fire.
Four hours earlier, Sabinas Hidalgo police chief Javier Garcia was abducted by armed assailants, bound and shot in the back of the head. His body was found alongside a highway outside the farming town of 30,000, about 50 miles north of Monterrey and 80 miles south of the U.S. border at Laredo, Texas.
Garcia had taken over as Sabinas Hidalgo's police chief last month.
Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Luis Trevino said investigators had made no arrests and were still trying to determine a motive for the killings. He said neither police chief had reported receiving threats.
"We have to base our investigation on reality and at this point we cannot say whether either attack is linked to organized crime," Trevino told reporters.
Violence in the area has been on the rise since March 2003, when reputed drug lord Osiel Cardenas was arrested during a shootout in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Another accused drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been fighting smugglers loyal to Cardenas to gain access to drug smuggling routes in Nuevo Laredo and other border cities.
In June, Alejandro Dominguez died in a hail of gunfire just eight hours after taking over as police chief of Nuevo Laredo, a city across from Laredo that has been crippled by a wave of drug-related violence.
Poor America: so far from God and so close to there . . .
What a miserable place.
Four hours earlier, Sabinas Hidalgo police chief Javier Garcia was abducted by armed assailants, bound and shot in the back of the head. His body was found alongside a highway outside the farming town of 30,000, about 50 miles north of Monterrey and 80 miles south of the U.S. border at Laredo, Texas.
Sounds just like muslim terror.
Mexico Seguro Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
If you have been to Nuevo Laredo, this would be an understatement. It is a first class s******le.
Psst, psst, Mr.Fox. You are doing a fine job of controlling crime in Mexico.
Mexico=New Colombia
We sent the Marines to Tripoli to stop Pirates. We may end up in Mexico for the same reason, Its obvious they have no control over crime there.
What will Jorge Bushtega say when this starts on the American side of the border?
I don't know about the Monterrey suburb, but Sabinas Hidalgo has been the home base for several families of Mexican smugglers for at least 50 years, way before the current drug culture.
It's a small town that has lots of pretty lawless folks who've always made a living that way.
Why do we suck up to this awful 3rd world pit? Mexico is a hostile nation. Mexico is not our friend.
Does anyone ever hear any news out of Piedras Negras? My cousin lives there and says it's fairly safe.
The next thing you know it will be as bad as Los Angeles.
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