Mexican stand-off after top officer slain

[High Plains]

Source: Los Angeles Times

THE co-ordinator of Mexico's battle against organised crime has been assassinated by a gunman hiding in his home in what appears to be the latest revenge murder by one of the country's most notorious drug cartels. Edgar Millan Gomez, 41, was the third leading federal security official shot to death over the past week in Mexico City.

Police sources said the so-called Sinaloa cartel was behind the attack on Mr Millan, the nation's third-ranking police official and acting director since last month of the Federal Preventive Police, an elite, 22,000-member force. The Sinaloa cartel is one of several organised-crime groups that have grown rich transporting Colombian cocaine, locally manufactured methamphetamines and other illicit drugs to the United States.

The assassination took place a week after Mr Millan announced the arrest of a dozen suspected cartel hitmen. Analysts said it was a dramatic escalation in the drug war and a clear indication that the Sinaloa-based traffickers had been hit hard by recent raids and arrests.

Seven other mid-ranking federal police officials have been killed in Mexico in the past month. Like Mr Millan, they were linked to recent police actions against drug traffickers.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/mexican-standoff-after-top-officer-slain/2008/05/09/1210131264669.html

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I was in Sinaloa last week. Last Wednesday, shoot-outs between the army/federal police and cartel members left six cops dead. Two days later, another six cops dead. Cartel guys in 15-vehicle convoys roaming the streets with AK-47s hanging out their windows.

Mexico continues to pay the price for America's war on the drugs it hates to love (or loves to hate).

More than 1100 dead so far this year.

[jakem]

1. Chinese fire drill to follow.

(sorry :shrug: )

[Gman]

2. And there's no way I'd go across the border in South Texas

especially Nuevo Laredo and south from there. I'm even looking over my shoulder when I'm in the Lower Rio Grande Valley on this side, especially around Mission, Tx. There's been violence all along the Rio Grande in the Valley and across the river.