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Mexico: 8 officers killed in attack on prison convoy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-20 14:42 The attack came three days after a bold assault on an army patrol in the nearby state of Guerrero, where 15 assailants and one soldier died, and just a day after officials reported 12 people dead across the state of Michoacan, including three who were beheaded. The assaults by emboldened, heavily armed cartels bracketed the first official visit Thursday by US President Barack Obama, who vowed to step up enforcement of laws banning the transfer of guns across the US-Mexico border.
As if to illustrate the scale of the drug war being fought in Mexico, federal police staged a massive operation using 400 federal officers, two Blackhawk helicopters and an airplane to raid a baptismal party being held Saturday by alleged members of the Familia Michoacana cartel. Police detained 44 people, including a man allegedly in charge of recruitment for the Michoacan-based gang. Federal police commissioner Rodrigo Esparza said that suspect Rafael Cedeno claimed to have trained 9,000 recruits for the cartel in 2008, hinting at the gang's size and power. True to the gang's quasi-moralistic tone -- it has claimed in the past to oppose common crime -- Cedeno claimed the training involved instilling "moral and ethical values" in recruits, including family unity and shunning alcohol and drugs. Many of the people attending the baptism party at a Morelia resort were released, and the other 43 people were being held based on their presumed involvement in the drug gang. The White House on Wednesday added the Familia Michoacana to the US government's blacklist of drug syndicates, known commonly as the Drug Kingpin Act. US officials say the gang moves massive amounts of cocaine from Colombian drug dealers. Esparza said Cedeno was also in charge of shipping methamphetamine precursor chemicals through Pacific coast ports and oversaw hit squads in the region to fight off the rival Gulf cartel.
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