An entire squad of eight state police officers and five prosecution investigators were massacred in a brutal ambush on Thursday. Their convoy was heavily outgunned leaving all thirteen members of the group dead. The Mexican drug cartels are winning their war against law enforcement.
Ambush in the jungle
According to Mexican officials of the Security Ministry and the State Attorney General’s Office, one of the local drug cartels operating in the Llano Grande area is responsible for the ambush.
The convoy was reportedly transporting investigators on the front lines of the fight against active organized crime groups. The cartels seem to have better equipment.
As related by officials, the ambush occurred in the central part of the country, in Mexico State, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides.
Just outside the capital’s suburbs, the thick mountainous jungle is home to the lawless mercenaries of the cartels. A manhunt is currently underway on the ground and in the air for the band of merciless killers.
Clean up efforts are underway by the state of Mexico, who sent the investigators into the remote, “gang-plagued area” southwest of Mexico City to do something about the rampant kidnapping and extortion.
The ambush took place near Coatepec Harinas which lies roughly 78 miles south-west of the big city.
A manhunt underway
In response to the ambush, Security Minister Rodrigo Martinez Celis promises a heavy handed retaliation. He’s sending out “all the force and support of the law.” The jungle massacre he declares is “an affront to Mexico.” The citizens say talk is cheap.
They hear that line all the time and nothing ever really happens. That’s because the cartels “often have links to the security forces.”
Minister Celis heads up the state Public Safety Department. He has soldiers, marines and National Guard troops hacking their way through the jungle to capture those involved in the ambush. Air support is providing spotters.
The locals say it’s just an attempt to look like they are doing something. “Only about three per cent of the crimes reported in Mexico are ever solved,” think tank IEP confirms.
Without even factoring in the ambush, the violence is totally out of control in Mexico and has been ever since the drug war was declared in late 2006. Right now they see nearly 100 murders a day and the current count of people who simply disappeared is up over 82,000.
Not only do the cartels make their money smuggling drugs into the United States, they “also make money through kidnapping and extortion.” When the federales send in the troops, the troops disappear.
