7 slain in Mexico police stations

Los Angeles Times

By Hector Tobar and Carlos Marti­nez

February 06, 2007

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen disguised as soldiers attacked two police stations and killed seven people Tuesday in the resort city of Acapulco, and apparently videotaped the slayings, police and media reports said. Police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the police stations had been at the center of a dispute between reform-minded state law enforcement officials and Acapulco police suspected of ties to drug traffickers.

Each attack was carried out by about eight men wearing olive-drab uniforms and berets, media reports said. The assailants simultaneously entered the two stations, less than a mile apart, said a police official who requested anonymity. City police officers suspected of ties to drug cartels recently had been replaced at the stations by state police, officials said. All those killed were employees of the state police. Five were officers and two were secretaries. Media reports said the assailants were armed with assault rifles, including AK-47-style weapons known in Mexico as 'the goat's horn,' a signature gun of drug cartels.