Policemen killed, kidnapped, detained, family massacred in Mexico

State investigators in the northern state of Nuevo León arrested at an unspecified date a purported kidnapping gang led by a 28-year-old municipal policeman from the district of Apodaca in that state, Proceso reported on 25 June. The six were held in Apodaca and El Carmen; their most recent kidnapping and one that apparently led to the gang's arrest was on 15 June when it managed to extort the equivalent of some 15,000 USD and a vehicle from an Apodaca businessman. The review observed that this was one of several recent cases of police or former policemen being involved in kidnapping and extortion. Authorities reportedly dismantled on 19 June a kidnapping gang in the north-western state of Baja California that included a former state policeman, it stated. In Mexico City prosecutors had detained on 6 June eight policemen accused of acts of extortion and "express" kidnappings in the capital, Proceso added. Separately three policemen of the district of Tancítaro in the western state of Michoacán were kidnapped and murdered on 25 June, the daily Milenio reported. The mayor of Tancítaro was cited as saying that the three were kidnapped while they patrolled the locality of El Pareo by car; their bodies were found by the district of Buenavista Tomatlán in that state. The head of the police telecommunications department in the west-coast district of Acapulco and a colleague were also reported missing since 19 June and were believed kidnapped, Proceso reported on 24 June, citing the regional daily El Sur. They too were thought kidnapped while driving in Acapulco. Proceso reported on 24 June that an "armed group" shot dead a family of five including children, as it drove in the district of Guadalupe y Calvo in the northern state of Chihuahua. The victims included a seven-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.