Posted on 06/01/2007 12:03:42 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
MONTERREY, Mexico — Heavily armed assailants opened fire on a police station Tuesday morning, wounding four police officers and one civilian in the latest attack on law enforcers in the nation's most important northern metropolis.
The gunmen also lobbed a fragmentation grenade at police headquarters in the wealthy suburb of San Pedro, authorities said.
"Fortunately, it didn't go off," said a city spokesman who did not want to be identified for personal security reasons.
All five victims were in stable condition in area hospitals Tuesday afternoon.
A duffel bag containing what some media outlets described as the bloodied uniform of a police officer was found near the scene of the shooting.
State authorities would not comment on the brazen attack.
Nuevo León state and its capital, Monterrey, are under siege. Warring drug cartels have been blamed for more than 70 execution-style killings in the state this year.
At least 20 of the victims have been police officers. Few, if any, of the shootings have led to arrests, let alone criminal charges.
State authorities responsible for preventing and investigating major crimes regularly point the finger elsewhere — at corrupt local police forces outside their jurisdiction or federal authorities.
Mexico's army and federal police officers have increased their presence in this heavily industrialized city of some 3.5 million, about 140 miles south of Laredo.
But the violence has only increased in recent weeks.
"What is happening is serious for Nuevo León," said Jesús Giacomán, the head of the 10,000-member tourism and retailers' chamber of commerce. "It's very worrying for us that police forces are the targets of attacks.
"Acts like this not only leave injured and dead people but sow fear among the police and the general population."
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mattson.sean@gmail.com
Monterrey is actually a pretty nice town, from what I’ve seen of it.
Spent 6 weeks there at the Tec.
Monterry ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
When a major industrial city of over 1,000,000 has an armed attack on a police station, probably over drugs, you are approaching the end of governmental control.
In Mexico life can be mean, brutal, nasty and short.
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