Militants Kill 13 In Ambush on Police Convoy in Central Mexico

By Staff, Agencies

Militants apparently from a drug gang ambushed a police convoy in central Mexico, killing eight state police officers and five prosecution investigators in a hail of gunfire, authorities said.

The killing of the 13 law enforcement officers in the State of Mexico on Thursday was the country’s single biggest slaying of law enforcement since October 2019, when cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in the neighboring state of Michoacan.

Photos of the grisly scene circulated on social media, showing a bullet-riddled police car and an unmarked truck, along with officers’ bodies scattered along the street or still inside the car.

The convoy of security personnel was attacked in broad daylight by suspected gang members in the Llano Grande area in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas as it patrolled the area, said Rodrigo Martinez-Celis, the security minister for the State of Mexico.

“This attack is an affront to the Mexican state. We will respond with all force and support of the law,” the minister said in an address to the media.

While Mexico State contains suburbs of the capital, it also includes lawless mountain and scrublands such as the one where the attack occurred.

The area is southwest of Mexico City and about 64 kilometers south of the city of Toluca, the capital of the populous State of Mexico, which surrounds much of the capital.

Mexico’s National Guard militarized police and the armed forces are searching by land and air for the perpetrators.

It was unclear how many suspected criminals were killed or wounded in the incident, or if it involved any of the country’s main drug cartels.