Gunmen apparently from a drug gang ambushed a police convoy in central Mexico. killing eight state cops and 5 prosecution investigators in a hail of gunfire, authorities stated.
The bloodbath of the 13 regulation enforcement officers within the State of Mexico on Thursday was the nation’s single largest slaying of regulation enforcement since October 2019, when cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state cops within the neighbouring state of Michoacan.
The ambush sparked an enormous seek for the killers in a rural, gang-plagued space southwest of Mexico City, which is surrounded on three sides by Mexico State. The lifeless regulation enforcement officers labored for the state.
While Mexico State accommodates suburbs of the capital, it additionally consists of lawless mountain and scrub lands just like the one the place the assault occurred.
Rodrigo Martínez Celis, the top of the state Public Safety Department, stated troopers, marines and National Guard troops had been combing the realm by land and from the air on the lookout for the killers.
“The convoy was carrying out patrols in the region, precisely to fight the criminal groups that operate in the area,” Martínez Celis stated. “This aggression is an assault on the Mexican authorities.
“We will respond with all force,” he added.
There was no rapid indication as to what gang or cartel the gunmen might need belonged to. Several function within the space round Coatepec Harinas, the place the assault occurred.
The city is close to a sizzling springs resort referred to as Ixtapan de la Sal, which is fashionable amongst Mexico City residents as a weekend getaway. But it additionally comparatively near cities like Taxco, the place authorities have reported actions by the Guerreros Unidos gang apparently allied with the Jalisco cartel and by the Arcelia gang, dominated by the Familia Michoacán crime group.
The assault seems to current a problem for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has pursued a technique of in a roundabout way confronting drug cartels in an effort to keep away from violence.
