Undercover agents ambushed in Monterrey Centro
MONTERREY, Mexico — Two federal police officers were shot dead Tuesday and two more were injured by gunfire in yet another attack on law enforcers in this violence-torn metropolis. The officers met a hail of high-caliber gunfire around 10 a.m. at a gas station close to a Holiday Inn Express near the center of the city. A least 100 shell casings littered the street around the scene.
Their deaths bring to about 30 the number of officers killed in the Monterrey area this year in attacks blamed on organized crime.
Authorities did not immediately release names of the officers or say what they were doing at the time of the attack.
Local media reported that the officers were staying at the hotel and may have been transporting a prisoner or detainee.
A spokeswoman for the federal attorney general’s office said one of the officers killed, and the two wounded, worked for the Federal Investigation Agency, or AFI, Mexico’s rough equivalent of the FBI.
The other officer belonged to the Federal Preventive Police, or PFP.
In August, two AFI officers were kidnapped and killed in Monterrey.
Federal officers often operate undercover and do not advise local authorities of their activities due to mistrust between corruption-prone police organizations.
Two men were arrested at the scene of the shooting but their involvement was unclear.
Media reports said a grenade that did not explode was found next to an abandoned vehicle beside the gas station.
Mexico is weathering an ongoing wave of violence perpetrated largely by two rival drug cartels fighting for control of smuggling routes in the multi-billion-dollar illicit industry.
Some 1,700 people have died across the country this year in organized-crime-related deaths.
A widely rumored cease-fire between cartels had been credited for a downturn in violence in parts of Mexico, including Monterrey, which is about a two-hour drive south of Laredo.
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Are we earnestly expected to believe that cargo, trucks and drivers entering the US are fully vetted and fully guaranteed to be safe on US roads, when it doesn’t seem that the neither the Mexican federal government nor the local police have control of its key points-of-entry, and further cannot even trust each other?
This has nothing to do with Mexican trucks, border security nor anything other than what it is. The cartels taking out honest cops who are trying to enforce the law in Mexico.
In this case, it seems they were trying to transport a high profile detainee that the cartels did not want in custody!
You know Calderon. Living here in Mexico, I can tell you from first hand experience that this does not effect day to day life for the citizens of Mexico. It’s between the good guys and the bad guys and they do their best to keep the citizens out of it.
Don’t be trying to read something into it that’s not there.
The media spoke of issues of distrust and tension between federal and local police relating to this occurence. It’s not unique to this incident either, if you have been following the news. Further, it’s also not unique or new to this incident that the cartels openly and brazenly are asserting their power against the police. In some instances the cartels even outman the police and carry heavier firepower. In some instances the cartels have infiltrated law enforcement.
I’m not reading anything into it. All one has to do is go back and look through the news going back through recent years, it’s all there.
I lived on the border for a time as well. It’s not all wine and roses, milk and honey. If you are suggesting there’s no problems whatsoever, I call BS on you.
The article spoke of distrust between local and federal officials. The article speaks of the issues we hear of all too often, of cartels in open and brazen ownership of segments of Mexican business and society, with police unable or unwilling to deal with it. I lived on the border for a time as well - and for you to say there are no problems at all, I have to call BS on you.
I am not saying there are no problems. We have problems here the same as anywhere else. What I am saying, and I have been here through the beginning of the “war” the cops being killed daily, the Police Chief’s etc. What I was saying is yes, there are problems but it seems the cartels are damned careful to keep the civilians out of it. If they want someone dead, he’s gone with as little collateral damage as possible.
Fortunately though, it appears Calderon is making a real effort to do something about it but it won’t happen overnight or even before the end of his term I’m afraid.