Thirteen killed around Mexico, six found in pieces

Thirteen people were reported killed or found dead on 24 January in criminal executions and shootouts with police around Mexico. Six of these were found dismembered in 15 plastic bags left in a car in the city of Toluca in the State of Mexico, a day after five bodies were found there in similar conditions, Proceso reported. A message was left apparently addressed to the authorities, and reportedly signed by one of the cartels the Familia Michoacana. Other victims included: two suspected drug dealers shot in a gun fight with police in the west-coast resort of Acapulco, and a police officer from the western district of Quitupan, shot by gangsters who pursued his car on a road near the frontier between the states of Jalisco and Michoacán. Separately the northern districts of Gómez Palacio and Lerdo were apparently without preventive or uniformed policemen after 81 resigned following their temporary detention and interrogation over suspected ties to criminals, CNN reported on 24 January, citing declarations by the Prosecutor's office of the state of Durango wherein are the districts. Other media had reported 91 resignations; this was in any case for the policemen's refusal to sit confidence or probity tests and undergo re-training ordered by the chief prosecutor of Durango, Sonia de la Garza. Nine policemen agreed to sit the tests, CNNMéxico reported.