Mexican federal agents and army troops are dispatched in a bid to rid the Tijuana police department of cops suspected of having links to drug traffickers.
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
TIJUANA, Mexico — Mexican federal agents and army troops fanned out across this besieged border city Tuesday to replace 500 police officers, the latest move by the government to purge the troubled force of corrupt and incompetent cops.
Last week, 21 officers, including two deputy chiefs, were detained on suspicion of having ties to drug traffickers and flown to Mexico City for questioning by Mexico’s anti-organized-crime unit.
The moves come as authorities struggle to control a brutal war among rival traffickers that has killed more than 300 people in Tijuana since late September and left residents wary of large swaths of the city.
Despite past purges, the 2,200-member police department is still viewed by many as an arm of the drug cartels.