20 Dead In Sonora Shootouts, They were just wanting work in US LOL

[Joann]

Published: 05.17.2007
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/183500
20 dead in Sonora shootouts

>> Up to 50 heavily armed men descend on Cananea >> Gunmen abduct 7 cops; 4 of them later killed >> At least 20 die as police, soldiers confront gunmen >> Grenade tossed at office of Hermosillo newspaper

By Lourdes Medrano
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
on Wednesday

• At 12:30 a.m., 2 officers patrolling west of Cananea encounter caravan of gunmen. The officers are beaten and dumped on highway.

• The caravan continues on to Cananea. The officers are able to call ahead to their colleagues and notify them of the approaching convoy.

• Five officers on duty head out to meet the convoy, only to be taken captive. The bodies of four are later found dead.

• At 2 p.m., military units and police confront suspected gunmen in the mountains near Arizpe, Sonora, about 60 miles south of Cananea. Mexican officials say 15 gunmen and five officers are killed.

Other major drug-related killings
While the Mexican government says it does not keep track of drug-related killings, three newspapers in the country estimated earlier this month that 1,000 people have been killed so far this year in "shootouts, decapitations and execution-style killings." Among the victims are law enforcement officials.

Among the dead are:

• Monterrey — From Jan. 1-Feb. 16, six state and municipal police officers were killed.

• Acapulco — Gunmen dressed as soldiers attacked two police stations in February, killing five officers and two secretaries.

• Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa — A police commander was killed in February by men who fired more than 100 bullets at his vehicle.

• Aguascalientes, in western Mexico — Four police officers were killed in February after they arrived at the scene of a car crash and found men unloading weapons from a vehicle. Men in a second vehicle arrived and opened fire on the officers.

• Agua Prieta — Police Chief Ramón Tacho Verdugo was shot in February as he was leaving the municipal police headquarters.

• Hermosillo — A police officer and a judicial police agent were killed in March in separate incidents.

• Cananea — A municipal police officer was gunned down in his patrol vehicle in March.

• Monterrey — A police officer was gunned down in March in her patrol vehicle. This was hours after a state police commander had been killed.

• Monterrey — At least two police officers were killed in March along with six other people in less than 48 hours.

• Tijuana — Two state police officers were killed in April when a gunman entered a hospital and confronted police who had escorted prisoners for routine treatment.

• Compiled from wire reports and Arizona Daily Star news archives by Jayne O'Sullivan
The northern Mexico state of Sonora is on alert, one day after a convoy of armed gunmen burst into Cananea early Wednesday, killing four police officers, abducting three others — and setting the stage for more carnage later in the day.

State and federal police immediately moved in to take control of the town and surrounding areas.
By 2 p.m., a confrontation between the suspected gunmen and Mexican military and Sonora State Police units in the mountains near Arizpe, Sonora, left at least 20 people dead, Sonora Attorney General Abel Murrieta Gutiérrez said at a news conference Wednesday night, according to the Hermosillo, Sonora, newspaper El Imparcial.

The newspaper reported gunfire was heard late into the evening in the area near Arizpe where the confrontation occurred, about 60 miles south of Cananea. Sonora borders Arizona.
The dead included five police officers and 15 suspected gunmen, Murrieta Gutiérrez said, but it was not clear if the dead officers included, or were in addition to the four Cananea officers killed earlier in the day.

Police were able to rescue four people, including two businessmen kidnapped in Cananea and two juveniles who had been kidnapped earlier by the gunmen.

Meanwhile, in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, unidentified assailants on Wednesday tossed a hand grenade from a passing car at the offices of the newspaper Cambio. The device caused only minor damage and no injuries. A similar attack on the newspaper occurred in April.

Murrieta Gutiérrez said police operations are continuing near Arizpe, but the search for other gunmen was suspended overnight out of concern for the safety of the officers participating.
He said federal police are expected to arrive today to assist in the investigation.

Citing unnamed sources, El Imparcial reported that three soldiers and police officers and at least 10 of the suspected gunmen were killed. The newspaper reported at least 15 others people have been arrested.

During the gunbattle with the armed assailants, state police were able to free four other people abducted by the gang, including one police officer and three Cananea residents, said state prosecutors' spokesman Jose Larrinaga.

In a statement released earlier Wednesday, Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours declined to speculate on a motive for the slaying of the four policemen in his state, but Mexico has seen a wave of attacks on police, military and intelligence officials as the government battles drug-trafficking gangs.

The assailants drove 10 to 15 vehicles into the city of Cananea and detained the police, who were in two patrol cars, the Sonora state police said in a news release.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the policemen, along with 50 spent cartridges, were found on the side of a road hours later. Another policeman, a gas-station owner and an unidentified Cananea resident also were abducted and were still missing at the time the statement was released.
Mexican authorities said the bodies of the four policemen were discovered hours after a group of more than 40 heavily-armed assailants left two other officers badly beaten near a highway.

The pair managed to recover and report that the suspects' caravan was headed toward Cananea, about 95 miles southeast of Tucson.

The five other officers on duty set out to investigate in two patrol cars, according to Cananea's municipal police spokesman.

Later that morning, the four policemen were found along the side of the Imuris-Cananea road, the Sonoran state police said in a news release.

The killings came as northern Mexico grapples with an outbreak of violence. On February 26, the drug-related violence claimed the life of Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramon Tacho Verdugo. He was gunned down as he left his office. Since then three other Cananea police officers have been killed.

Everyone hopes for the safe return of Fermín Aguilar Leyva, the missing officer, said Rosy Dupont, a Cananea police clerk.

"We don't know if he is alive or dead," she said.

Dupont identified the policemen killed as Ramón Soto Grajeda, José Ramón Bracamontes Estrada, Luis Fernando León Mercado and Rogelio González Orozco.

Police presence is heavy in town and on the outskirts as various law enforcement units assist in the search for clues to the killings and abductions, Dupont said.

"People are very worried," she said, referring to the many calls she and colleagues have fielded.
Sonora Gov. Bours said the convoy had traveled about 180 miles across the state without being detected until the group was a few miles from its target.

Bours said the attack appeared to be related to a dispute between rival cartels, and that some of those involved had come from the Mexico-Texas border state of Tamaulipas. The governor also said that he had previously asked for federal help to investigate police officers in Cananea.
Tamaulipas is home to the Gulf cartel and its paramilitary enforcement arm, the Zetas. The Gulf cartel is in a fierce turf war with the Sinaloa cartel based on the Pacific Coast.
Bours said the Federal Preventive Police, which patrols federal highways, did not detect the convoy or alert state authorities.

"The information we have is that they (the gunmen) took a federal highway, which is worrisome," Bours said. "In fact, we had information that we tried to check with the Federal Preventative Police, and the Federal Preventative Police said there were no reports from last night, all of which we are going to investigate."

Gricelda Torres, who lives in Cananea, said state and federal police could be seen all over the area.

"We have an army base here, so there are also many soldiers patrolling," she said. "It took me a long time to get to work."

Torres is a receptionist at a hotel near the motel where the assailants abducted the person whom police did not identify Wednesday.

Torres said there has been a lot of fear in Cananea since the earlier police killings in March.
"The streets are deserted, the restaurants that used to be full at night are empty," she said
The violence hits close to home for Torres, she said. The missing policeman is her former neighbor.

"I just hope nothing bad happens to him," she said. "But what I keep asking myself is, 'why is this happening to our police officers?'"

on Wednesday

• At 12:30 a.m., 2 officers patrolling west of Cananea encounter caravan of gunmen. The officers are beaten and dumped on highway.

• The caravan continues on to Cananea. The officers are able to call ahead to their colleagues and notify them of the approaching convoy.

• Five officers on duty head out to meet the convoy, only to be taken captive. The bodies of four are later found dead.

• At 2 p.m., military units and police confront suspected gunmen in the mountains near Arizpe, Sonora, about 60 miles south of Cananea. Mexican officials say 15 gunmen and five officers are killed.

Other major drug-related killings
While the Mexican government says it does not keep track of drug-related killings, three newspapers in the country estimated earlier this month that 1,000 people have been killed so far this year in "shootouts, decapitations and execution-style killings." Among the victims are law enforcement officials.

Among the dead are:

• Monterrey — From Jan. 1-Feb. 16, six state and municipal police officers were killed.

• Acapulco — Gunmen dressed as soldiers attacked two police stations in February, killing five officers and two secretaries.

• Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa — A police commander was killed in February by men who fired more than 100 bullets at his vehicle.

• Aguascalientes, in western Mexico — Four police officers were killed in February after they arrived at the scene of a car crash and found men unloading weapons from a vehicle. Men in a second vehicle arrived and opened fire on the officers.

• Agua Prieta — Police Chief Ramón Tacho Verdugo was shot in February as he was leaving the municipal police headquarters.

• Hermosillo — A police officer and a judicial police agent were killed in March in separate incidents.

• Cananea — A municipal police officer was gunned down in his patrol vehicle in March.

• Monterrey — A police officer was gunned down in March in her patrol vehicle. This was hours after a state police commander had been killed.

• Monterrey — At least two police officers were killed in March along with six other people in less than 48 hours.

• Tijuana — Two state police officers were killed in April when a gunman entered a hospital and confronted police who had escorted prisoners for routine treatment.

• Compiled from wire reports and Arizona Daily Star news archives by Jayne O'Sullivan

(On my third drink now)

[Joann]

Friday 5/18 1:22 pm PDT ALERT-ALERT-ALERT

[B]American Border Patrol

Major gun battle in Mexico reported

1:22 pm PDT -- American Border Patrol has learned from a reliable source that there is a major gun battle on-going in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. More than 100 people have been killed. Word is that the government may pull the National Guard off the border because it fears a confrontation if people head north.[B]

[jofortruth]

Simply unbelievable! You can bet some of that was orchestrated and involves the drug cartels.