mexican police killed fed agents

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/5865293/Mexican-police-officers-arrested-over-murder-of-federal-agents.htmlv

Mexican police officers arrested over murder of federal agents

Ten Mexican police officers have been arrested over the torture and murder of 12 federal agents who were investigating a drugs cartel.

By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 5:42PM BST 19 Jul 2009

Prosecutors in the western state of Michoacán said the municipal policemen had been detained to "determine their responsibility" for the murders and for allegedly carried out "criminal acts" on behalf of a ruthless drug gang called La Familia Michoacana.

Corruption is rife among Mexico's local police forces and officers have not only protected cartels, but also murdered their rivals.

But the killing of the 12 agents, whose bodies were found piled beside a road long with warning notes, showed the cartels were becoming more willing to attack the federal government.

La Familia, a particularly violent group whose members study a special Bible and claim to be evangelical Christians, had the agents killed apparently in revenge for the arrest of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, one of their leaders.

Around 5,500 troops, federal police and navy personnel are being sent into Michoacán, the home state of President Felipe Calderón.

La Familia is a relatively new cartel which announced itself in 2006 by rolling five severed heads on to a bar's dance floor.

A man claiming to be Servando Gomez, its leader, called a local television station last week and said he was attacking government forces simply to defend his members' families and friends.

Mr Calderón believes that the cartel's recent violence shows it has been damaged by the government's campaign.