Cartel gunmen kidnapped four municipal police officers in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua late Sunday night in a rural area south of the municipality of San Francisco de Conchos. The four municipal police officers responded to a disturbance at “La Presa El Tigre” — the Tigre Dam — when the group of unknown cartel gunmen carried out the kidnapping.
Government authorities in the state of Chihuahua launched an intense security operation in an attempt to locate the four kidnapped municipal police officers. The kidnapping occurred late Sunday night between 10:30 pm and 11:00 p.m., according to media reports. The four municipal police officers initially responded to a disturbance in two marked police trucks. Two of the officers were reportedly from San Francisco de Conchos and the other two from La Boquilla.
Officials launched the search operation after police officials could not make radio contact with their personnel. Authorities also deployed state and federal police along with Mexican army officials to include personnel from the newly formed Guardia National or National Guard. The state attorney general’s office also launched a helicopter to help search the surrounding rural areas, according to a statement released by the state’s Attorney General César Augusto Peniche.
Government authorities located the two police units belonging to the kidnapped officers abandoned in a rural area in a gully near the Babisas bridge on outskirts of La Boquilla. According to local Breitbart government sources, the area and surrounding areas where the kidnapping occurred is plagued by cartel activity and related violence. The main criminal groups operating in the area are “La Línea,” the armed wing of the Juarez Cartel, which is in a turf war against the Sinaloa Cartel and affiliated gangs.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com.