Cartel Bombs Kill 6 in Mexico – Lahore Security Guards
MEXICO CITY — A drug cartel set off seven bombs in western Mexico, killing four officers, and two civilians. The governor of Jalisco state said the explosions were “a trap” set by the cartel to kill law enforcement personnel. Luis Méndez, the chief prosecutor of Jalisco state, said the blasts in Tlajomulco left craters, destroyed four vehicles, and wounded 14 people. It appeared to be the first time that a Mexican cartel killed law enforcement personnel with improvised explosive devices or IEDs and was the latest example of the increasingly open, military-style challenge posed by the country’s drug cartels.
Méndez said the two dead civilians were in a vehicle that happened to be passing the spot when the IEDs detonated in Tlajomulco, near the state capital of Guadalajara. The possibility of remote detonation was suggested, indicating that the blast occurred precisely as intended. Among the 18 wounded, 12 were civilians, including three children aged 9, 13, and 14, with some in critical condition. Experts had to defuse an eighth IED that did not detonate, and warned the area was still dangerous, Méndez said. Enrique Alfaro, the governor of Jalisco state, said an anonymous caller who gave a volunteer search group a tip about a clandestine burial site near the roadway set “a trap” for the officers.
Mexico’s Missing Persons Crisis
For years, police have been unable to locate the more than 110,000 missing people in Mexico, but they accompany volunteer search groups that look for such hidden graves. The volunteers, usually the mothers of missing people, often get anonymous tips about where their relatives may be buried. Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said a total of eight “improvised explosive devices” were planted on the roadway. Alfaro calls the attack a brutal terror act, blaming an unnamed drug cartel for the deaths.
He said he was temporarily suspending police escorts for volunteer searches for the safety of the civilians. No search volunteers were in the blown-up convoy, said Hector Flores, a leader of a search group in Jalisco. Cartel’s unprecedented act exposes their capabilities – Alfaro. “This attack also represents an open challenge to the Mexican government on all levels.” Alfaro didn’t name suspects, but the Jalisco cartel is skilled in using IEDs and bomb-dropping drones. IEDs also wounded 10 soldiers in the neighboring state of Michoacan in 2022 and killed a civilian.
Cartel Attacks and IEDs in Mexico
A car bomb killed a National Guard officer in Guanajuato, as another cartel carried out the attack. Protesters in Guerrero, allied with a drug gang, battled security forces on Monday. They seized a police armored truck and smashed the state legislature building gates. Guadalajara experiences bloody cartel battles; Jalisco cartel blamed for previous IED use in Mexico. In February 2022, in the Michoacan township of Aguililla, a roadside mine damaged an army vehicle and injured 10 soldiers.
A few days later, another IED killed a farmer when he drove over the device in his pickup truck. The farmer’s son was wounded in the blast, which was fueled by a device containing ammonium nitrate. Special squads of Mexican army troops equipped with metal detectors and bomb suits were later deployed to the area. Dozens of such devices were found along rural roads and fields in the area around the township of Aguililla. IEDs: Radio/telephone detonation, pressure-triggered (stepping on them), and vial-activated (chemical combination).
Cartel Conflict and Searcher Struggles
Years of conflict: Jalisco cartel vs. Viagras gang (United Cartels) battling for control in the area. However, those battles have featured the use of trenches, pillboxes, homemade armored cars, and drones modified to drop small bombs. However, the cartels’ bomb-carrying drones have caused more terror in Michoacan. While initially crude and dangerous to load and operate — and still worrisomely indiscriminate — drone warfare has improved; it’s not unusual to see a metal barn or shed roofs opened like tin cans from the impact of drone explosions.
Tuesday’s IED attack on Tlajomulco hurt search groups as they rely on anonymous tips to locate mass graves. Searchers suspect cartel informants provide tips on victims’ burial sites, adding to their anguish. Searchers work with cartels under an uneasy truce, seeking closure, not prosecution for family kidnappings. Moreover, they say they only want to find the remains, to end their uncertainty, and give their relatives a decent burial. However, six volunteer search activists have been killed in Mexico since 2021. Motives in killings unclear. Cartels intimidate searchers investigating active grave sites.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/roadway-bomb-planted-drug-cartel-kills-3-police-101164435
