Mexico City, March 19, (dpa/GNA) – At least 13 police officers have been killed in an ambush of a police convoy in central Mexico that officials suspect was the work of one of the powerful drugs cartels.
The convoy was ambushed on Thursday in the central Mexican community of Coatepec Harinas, spokespeople for the public prosecutor’s office and police said in a statement.
The officers were involved in the fight against organized crime groups active in the area about 140 kilometres south-west of the capital Mexico City.
Further details were not immediately available.
Mexico has experienced unprecedented violence since the so-called drug war broke out in late 2006.
Currently, almost 100 murders are registered every day in the country of some 126 million inhabitants.
In addition, more than 82,000 people are thought to have disappeared.
The bloodshed is largely due to cartels and gangs that are involved in drug smuggling into the United States, but also make money through kidnapping and extortion. They often have links to the security forces.
Only about three per cent of the crimes reported in Mexico are ever solved, according to figures from the think tank IEP.
GNA