Police in Mexico are reporting Mexican drug cartel members have recently been targeting officers in their homes for torture and killings, according to multiple outlets.
The Jalisco cartel are going after members of an elite law enforcement force called the Tactical Group in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, roughly 222 miles northwest of Mexico City, according to the Associated Press.
A banner was printed and hung from a building in the city, saying, “If you want war, you’ll get a war. We have already shown that we know where you are. We are coming for all of you,” adding, “For each member of our firm (CJNG) that you arrest, we are going to kill two of your Tacticals, wherever they are, at their homes, in their patrol vehicles,” referring to the cartel by its initials in Spanish.
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Members of the cartel group have kidnapped members of the elite police force and have tortured them into providing information such as the names and addresses of their fellow officers, the outlet added.
The most recent killing occurred last Thursday, when an officer was kidnapped and killed, with his body later left alongside a highway.
Another brutal killing happened in January when cartel members came to the home of a female officer, killed her husband, and tortured her before also dumping her deceased bullet-ridden body.
“A lot of them [officers] have decided to desert. They took their families, abandoned their homes and they are fleeing and in hiding,” Guanajuato-based security analyst David Saucedo said. “The CJNG is hunting the elite police force of Guanajuato.”
Saucedo added the recent killings mark “an open war against the security forces of the state government.”
An accurate death toll from the targeted attacks is difficult to ascertain, though it is believed at least seven police officers have been killed on their days off this year, according to Poplab, a news cooperative in Guanajuato.
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Guanajuato has recorded the highest number of police killed in any Mexican state since at least 2018, the cooperative outlet reported.
Between 2018 and May 12, at least 262 police have been killed in the Mexican state, averaging approximately 75 officers killed each year.
