Michoacan

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US Couple Gunned Down on Mexico Vacation

Authorities aren't sure why the California residents were targeted in Michoacán

(Newser) - Two Americans on holiday in western Mexico were fatally shot before midnight Wednesday. The married couple were identified by Mexican prosecutors only as Rafael C., 53, born in the US to Mexican parents, and Mexico-born naturalized American María Gloria A., 50, per Reuters . They had traveled from California in...

Mexico Deploys Hundreds of Soldiers to Fight Lime Crime

Growers in Michoacan say cartels are demanding a cut of their income

(Newser) - Mexico has sent 660 soldiers and militarized National Guard officers to the western state of Michoacan to protect lime growers who complained they were suffering extortion demands by cartels. The Defense Department said Thursday that since the start of President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration on Oct. 1, it has sent...

Gunmen Open Fire at Cockfight
Gunmen Kill 20 at Cockfight
UPDATED
Mar 29, 2022 10:45 AM CDT

Gunmen Kill 20 at Cockfight

Police say Mexico City assailants used a fish-and-chips van for camouflage

(Newser) - Update: Police investigating a mass shooting in Mexico's Michoacan state that left 20 people dead say the gunmen staged their ambush by hiding in a fish-and-chips van, reports the BBC . The assailants drove to a ranch that was home to an illegal cockfighting ring in a food van that...

19 Bodies Hung From Bridge, Hacked Up in Cartel Turf War

3 victims in Mexico massacre were women

(Newser) - Mexican police found nine bodies hanging from an overpass Thursday alongside a drug cartel banner threatening rivals, and seven more corpses hacked up and dumped by the road nearby. Just down the road were three more bodies, for a total of 19. The killing spree reported by prosecutors in the...

Entire Mexican Town's Police Force Arrested

They're suspected of being involved in the murder of a mayoral candidate

(Newser) - A Mexican political candidate has been murdered, and those suspected of being involved include the town's entire local police force. Federal police officers arrested all 27 police officers in Ocampo, Michoacan state, early Sunday, along with Oscar Gonzalez Garcia, the town's public security secretary, the BBC reports. Their...

Mayor in Drug-Ridden Mexican Town Shot to Death

He's the 2nd mayor in the country killed in as many days

(Newser) - The mayor of a town in one of Mexico's most violent drug corridors was shot to death, the second mayor killed in Mexico in two days, the AP reports. Ambrosio Soto was mayor of a township that includes Ciudad Altamirano, a known haven for drug traffickers in southern Guerrero...

Short on Limes? Blame Drug Cartels

Citrus hijackings drive prices up

(Newser) - No lime in your drink? Mexican drug cartels, along with a spell of bad weather, are to blame, the New York Daily News finds. As part of their lucrative shift away from drug trafficking , the Knights Templar cartel has been hijacking lime trucks in Michoacan state, the world's biggest...

Drugs No Longer Mexico Cartel's Top Earner

Knights Templar now a mining, logging, extortion cartel

(Newser) - Mexico's Knights Templar cartel has diversified so much that instead of being a drug cartel, the organization that started out smuggling crystal meth is now more of an extortion, logging, and mining cartel with a profitable sideline in drugs, the AP finds. In the cartel's home state of...

Vigilantes Take Mexico Town in Fight With Cartel

Say they're headed for cartel headquarters

(Newser) - More than 100 vigilantes poured into a western Mexico town yesterday, disarming police and battling with alleged cartel members before eventually taking control of the town of Nueva Italia. Upon arrival in Nueva Italia, they were welcomed, the AP reports. But gunfire soon began in the town's center and...

11 Bodies Dumped on Mexican Highway

Knights Templar drug cartel takes credit for slayings

(Newser) - Eleven bodies dumped in three locations along the highway in Guerrero, Mexico, appear to have been killed in drug-related violence, reports Reuters . The dead appeared to have been tortured, and messages were found with the bodies signed by the Knights Templar drug cartel, said authorities. The Knights Templar, based just...

Mexican Town Seizes 16 Cops
 Mexican Town 
 Seizes 16 Cops 
Apr 20, 2012 4:22 AM CDT

Mexican Town Seizes 16 Cops

Indigenous people demand probe of killings by illegal loggers

(Newser) - The people of an indigenous town in western Mexico kidnapped 16 police officers in a desperate attempt to get some attention from the state government, AP reports. Illegal loggers linked to drug cartels have been destroying the forests the people of Cheran depend on. The town of 17,000 people...

15 Bodies Dumped at Mexico Gas Station

Cartels at war again in Michoacan

(Newser) - The drug war appears to be heating up again in Mexican President Felipe Calderon's home state. Some 15 semi-naked bodies were found in a pile outside a gas station in Zitacuaro, Michoacan state, the BBC reports. All of the victims were male and three were minors. Police say threatening...

Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29
 Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29 
May 27, 2011 1:40 AM CDT

Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29

Fighting forces thousands to flee homes

(Newser) - Yet another bloody battle in Mexico's drug war has left at least 29 bodies in fake military uniforms lying dead among more than a dozen bullet-riddled vehicles in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. Investigators believe the highway battle between members of the Zetas and Sinaloa cartels began when...

Mexican Cartel Claims to Have Retired

La Familia dissolved, banners say

(Newser) - Banners have appeared in the heartland of Mexico's La Familia drug cartel claiming that the criminal organization has been dissolved but authorities are understandably skeptical. The cartel, one of Mexico's most brutal, declared a month-long truce earlier this month and authorities believe that it is weakened and in disarray but...

Mexican Mayor Stoned to Death
 Mexican Mayor Stoned to Death 
Sep 27, 2010 6:42 PM CDT

Mexican Mayor Stoned to Death

Latest casualty in violence-plagued town

(Newser) - Mexico's drug violence grows seemingly more brutal with each headline: This time, two small-town politicians were found stoned to death in Michoacan, a western state mired in the country's drug war. Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael Equihua, who served in 26,000-strong city of Tancitaro, were found in...

29 Die in Mexican Prison Massacre

10 police killed in convoy ambush

(Newser) - At least 29 inmates were killed yesterday as drug cartels clashed at a prison in Mexico's Sinaloa state. Three policeman guarding the prison were injured, and 20 inmates were shot to death when one gang forced its way into another cell block and opened fire on its rivals, AP reports....

Mexican Cops Busted in 12 Federal Agent Murders

(Newser) - Ten Mexican police officers have been arrested in the torture-murder of a dozen federal agents whose mangled corpses were found along a highway in the western state of Michoacan, reports the BBC. Local police are believed to regularly take payoffs from drug traffickers. Some 5,000 heavily armed troops have...

Dozen Mangled Mexican Bodies Were Feds

Agents tortured, killed in revenge for drug trafficker's arrest

(Newser) - Twelve people tortured, murdered, and dumped along a highway  in the Mexican state of Michoacan Monday were Mexican federal agents, the AP reports. The off-duty agents—11 men and one woman—were caught in an ambush by members of a drug cartel, officials said. The murders are believed to be...

12 Mangled Bodies Dumped on Mexican Highway

(Newser) - The bodies of 11 men and a woman were found by the side of a remote highway in Mexico's Michoacan state yesterday, Reuters reports. The victims had been tortured before being executed, police said. Officials believe the killings are linked to an ongoing feud for control of the state between...

Drug Gunmen Attack Mexican Police Bases

Five dead as violence spikes in western state after recent arrests

(Newser) - Gunmen attacked federal police bases in at least six Mexican cities, killing three police officers and two soldiers, the BBC reports. The burst of violence follows arrests and gun battles on Friday in Morelia, where 40 men armed with assault rifles and grenades carried out the raid on the police...

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