Nineteen dead after shootouts with police in Mexico's Sinaloa state

 

Genaro Robles Casillas (L), Chief of the Secretariat of Public Security in the Sinaloa state, and Cristobal Castaneda Camarillo, Undersecretary of the Secretary of Public Security, address to the media during a news conference in Culiacan, Mexico, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jesus Bustamante

 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Nineteen people were killed in Mexico's northwestern state of Sinaloa late on Friday in a run of related shootouts between police and gunmen, state authorities said.

 

Armed men in pickup trucks opened fire on a group of police officers on a major highway near the beach resort of Mazatlan, according to the state police and state attorney general's office.

 

State Public Security Minister Genaro Robles Casillas said in a news conference on Saturday that drug gangs have been fighting over trafficking routes in the area where the violence occurred.

 

Aided by federal forces, the police fought off the attackers and pursued them to the nearby town of La Amapa, where the gunfight resumed, according to a press release from the state police.

 

Seventeen gunmen were killed in the shootouts with police, and another two people died nearby in what appears to be earlier, related shootings, the attorney general's office said in another press release.

 

No police died. However, five suffered gunshots and are in stable condition, with two of those officers suffering head wounds, according to state police.

 

Found at the scene were 16 semiautomatic rifles, nine handguns and a shotgun, the attorney general's office said.

 

The coastal state of Sinaloa is a focal point in Mexico's drug war. It is home to the Sinaloa cartel, whose most well known boss, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was extradited to the United States in January to face trial.

 

Police killed 17 people for every officer lost in gunbattles in 2014, according to a study by Mexico's National Autonomous University, a number experts say is consistent with excessive use of force.

 

In 2015, Mexican police executed nearly two dozen suspected gang members after ambushing them at a ranch near the town of Tanhuato in the violent western state of Michoacan, one of the worst abuses by security forces in a decade of grisly drug violence.

 

Some 30,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since drug violence increased sharply around 2007. Since former president Felipe Calderon sent the army out to battle drug gangs at the end of 2006 more than 150,000 have been killed.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-02

 

After they signed up to NAFTA, it all went downhill.

That is a very tough area of Mexico. I used to got there a lot back in the 70's. It was quite lively even then.  We had helicopters landing on the road in front of the hotel  which was right by the beach.Store owners pistol whipped and robbed at closing time. Razor blade fights at brothels (between the girls). Back then was easy to be taken up in the mountains to meet the big guys. So i would speculate it has just changed with the times. 

  What I used to find amusing was the federalies  riding around in the back of pick ups with lots of gun power. In the brothel areas  they used to sit outside each brothel with ready to take charge.

  

 

Edited July 2, 20178 yr by lovelomsak

I just read a detailed article in the most recent National Geographic mag which articulated the same sort of thing, although in the Nat.Geo article, the police didn't raise a finger to try to save anyone but themselves - dozens of innocent civilians died, most of them burnt alive en masse. 

 

At least in this OP article, the police actively fought back.  Probably because Federales were involved.  If left to their own devices, local police in that border region usually run and hide.  Most, if not all of them, are on the payroll of the bad guys. 

Kinda sounds like Chicago. 

Anybody here remember the Belmar Hotel? It was just south of the popular Senor Frogs restaurant.which was tourist must visit resraurant. Well if if you ventured into the backstreets behind the Belmar you would have found Mexican style men only bars where  if you looked at someone the wrong way they would have slit you like a ripe tomato right there in the bar. They sat drinking with either a gun,knife or razor blade in front of them and would use them without a moments hesitation. What used to be behind the scenes is now more exposed.and written in the news.