Two Police Dead, 7 Missing in Guerrero State Ambush

Two police agents are dead and seven are missing following an ambush against authorities of the prosecutor’s office in Guerrero state, southern Mexico, officials of that agency said Saturday.

The director of the PIM police investigations agency, Fernando Monreal, said in a statement to the press that two agents of that security force died when an armed group ambushed them Friday in the community of El Revelado in the Teloloapan municipality near Mexico state.

The official said that “seven other (agents) are missing,” so that an operation is underway to try and find them with the aid of the Mexico state prosecutor’s office.

Among the missing is the unit commander, Enrique Figueroa Abundes, who was the head of PIM headquarters there.

Monreal said that the dead police agents were identified as Jose Guadalupe Espinoza and Ramon Salvador Cuevas, and that their bodies were found Saturday morning.

The first reports from the authorities said that the police unit was carrying out an operation Friday to arrest a suspected murderer when they were intercepted in the community of El Revelado by between 30 and 40 armed men.

The region where the police agents were gunned down is a drug-producing area and the scene of turf battles among various drug cartels.

UPDATE:

The death toll from the ambush staged against police in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero has risen to eight, with one officer wounded, officials said.

Proceso is reporting that of eight of the nine (we had initially reported seven) judicial police reported missing since yesterday in the limits of Guerrero state in Mexico were found executed.

The officers were said to be linked to the group of sicarios who call themselves "Los Pelones" an armed wing of the Beltran Leyva cartel that operates in the Tierra Caliente region and northern area of the entity.

An official report says that about three in the afternoon on Saturday at a location known as Acapetlahuaya, in the municipality of General Canuto A. Neri authorities found the remains of six people that had been killed, four of them were dismembered.

Four judicial police were found decapitated in a truck belonging to the PIM, that was found abandoned at the intersection of Acapetlahuaya (municipality of Pedro Ascencio de Alquisiras), three more in a nearby gully and two others in the limits of Guerrero and Mexico State, where they also found the injured officer.

Next to the bodies was a sign with the following message: "This is what happens for supporting "Los Pelones." Berna here I send them to you, although you sent them disguised as judicial police, I am returning them to you."

State officials confirmed that the victims were identified as part of the group of judicial policemen that were reported missing, two others were killed yesterday and another was wounded.

Enrique Figueroa Abundes, who was in charge of the state police unit in the area, was among the officers killed.

Reportedly found execited were Enrique Figueroa Abundes (former member of the security detail of former Gov. Rene Juarez Cisneros), José Guadalupe Espinosa Román, Salvador Moran Cuevas, Raymundo Lorenzo Guzmán, Sabás Jiménez Serrano, Ángel Miranda Mendoza, Héctor Morales Visoso, Rangel Salmerón Ortega, and seriously injured was Oscar Roman de Jesus, however, the State Police explained that they also found another dead victim by the name of Gabriel Olvera Alvarado.

Previuosly there had been several executions in the area of Guerrero that included several men found decapitated. Two bodies found decapitated had a sign next to them with a message that read:

"This is what will happen to all those who support fucking Reinaldo Pineda Chávez de Jaripo and Hector Beltrán. Morelos and Guerrero already have their boss and you all know who it is. Greeting to the ARRA."