Culiacan: Gunmen staged a massive
ambush of a police convoy transporting two prisoners in northern Mexico, killing seven officers and one of the inmates, prosecutors said.
Six other officers and a second prisoner were wounded in
the attack, in which gunmen travelling in about 20 vehicles
caught police in a crossfire, Sinaloa state Attorney General
Marco Antonio Higuera said.
"The patrol vehicles were destroyed. It was practically a
massacre," Higuera said. "Initial reports indicate there were
1,200 shell casings at the scene."
The three state police patrol vehicles were travelling to
the state capital of Culiacan when they came under attack by
gunmen who had apparently been lying in wait on a highway near
the city of Guasave on Sunday.
Higuera said the officers fought off a first attack but
were later caught in concentrated fire from a larger number of
vehicles.
Also yesterday, police in the Pacific coast resort city
of Acapulco reported finding three severed heads in plastic
bags outside a tunnel that connects central Acapulco to the
outskirts of the city.
The victims were all male, the Guerrero state Public
Safety Department said in a statement.
A note left at the scene said the beheadings were revenge
for the killing of a man who was shot dead during an attempted
kidnapping.
Meanwhile, police announced the capture of a suspected
prominent drug gang member who allegedly oversaw kidnappings,
extortion, bribery and local drug distribution for a group
known as the "independent cartel of Acapulco."
Benjamin Flores Reyes, alias "The Godfather," was
arrested Sunday after a six-month investigation, the federal
Public Safety Department said in a statement.
Flores studied criminal psychology for a time during 15
years he spent living in the United States, the statement
added. He returned to Mexico about three years ago and
allegedly signed up with the organisation formerly led by
Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie," who was
arrested last year.
PTI
