Mexican drug cartel members have recently taken to targeting police officers in their homes - then torturing and killing them, according to a disturbing new report.
The Jalisco cartel has vowed to wipe out members of an elite law enforcement force known as the Tactical Group in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
"For each member of our firm that you arrest, we are going to kill two of your Tacticals, wherever they are, at their homes, in their patrol vehicles," the message continued, referring to the cartel by its Spanish initials.
The cartel started kidnapping members of the Tactical Group and torturing them into giving up the names and addresses of their fellow officers, according to the AP. State officials have not confirmed how many officers have been killed in this way, but Guanajuato-based news cooperative Poplab told the wire service at least seven police officers have been killed on their days off so far in 2021.
"[O]rganized crime groups have shown up at the homes of police officers, which poses a threat and a greater risk of loss of life, not just for them, but for members of their families," reads a May 17 decree announcing the move.
The stepped-up violence is the latest headache for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in December 2018 promising to give the cartels "Hugs, not bullets," a reference to his policy of addressing social problems like youth unemployment that he says contribute to gang membership.
In October 2019, López Obrador ordered the release of Ovidio Guzmán López, son of notorious Sinaloa Cartel capo Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, after hundreds of cartel members attacked civil and military targets in the city of Culiacán.
https://nypost.com/2021/05/30/mexican-cartel-now-targeting-cops-at-their-homes/
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