Trending Topics

Police Administrator shot to Death in Mexico Border City

The Associated Press

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - A Nuevo Laredo police administrator was shot to death outside his home in the latest of a string of attacks against law enforcement officers in this northern border city, police said Thursday.

Juan Antonio Santos, administrative director and the third in command at Nuevo Laredo’s police department, was shot nine times at close range by an unknown number of assailants as he returned home late Wednesday, investigators said.

Santos’ killing comes three days after a group of gunmen ambushed a state police convoy in Nuevo Laredo, wounding a police commander and five officers.

The assailants, dressed in black according to witness testimony, fired hundreds of rounds from automatic weapons.

Nuevo Laredo, across the U.S. border from Laredo, Texas, has become a battleground between rival gangs of drug traffickers.

Authorities say a cartel allegedly led by reputed drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman has been fighting the Gulf cartel for control of smuggling routes in Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located.