5 MEXICAN POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED WITH KILLING 17 PEOPLE

MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities have arrested five police officers
and charged them with robbing and killing at least 17 people during an
eight-week orgy of crime.

The five municipal police officers, all from the working-class suburb
of Ecatepec on the northeastern edge of Mexico City, kidnapped and
robbed their victims while on duty, then shot them to death and dumped
their bodies, authorities said.

The police killed some of their victims for their money and on two
occasions murdered them for their cars, Detective Pablo Diego Pacheco,
who led the investigation, said Thursday.

The officers killed others because they didn't like their looks or
because their victims demanded their rights and resisted arrest,
Pacheco said in a telephone interview.

"Sometimes they killed them for nothing because they had no money,"
said Pacheco, adding that all the victims were adult males.

"But it was continuous," the detective said. "Generally, they killed
somebody every night they were on patrol."

He said the police officers, who usually worked three or four nights a
week, stopped the men after dark, often when they were leaving local
markets or bars, and cited them for common offenses such as public
drunkenness or violating traffic laws.

The police took the men into custody and placed them inside their
cars, telling them they were being taken to a station house,
prosecutors said.

The officers then drove their victims to deserted stretches where they
stripped them, apparently to hinder their identification, and shot
them dead, the prosecutors added.

"It was opportunist crime," Pacheco said.

The detective said the authorities uncovered the gang on Monday after
they arrested one of the its members, Francisco Jeronimo Sanchez. The
officer was detained when investigators discovered his patrol car was
frequently on duty in areas near the scenes of the murders.

Sanchez admitted participating in some of the killings and gave up the
names of the other officers involved, authorities said.

All were jailed on charges of murder, robbery and abuse of authority,
officials said.

All but a couple of the 17 dead have been identified, and while no
more arrests are planned, the investigation is continuing, Pacheco
said.

Courtroom lawyer Ruben Rojas Martinez told an Associated Press
reporter that the seeds of the problem lie in the officers' low
salaries -- municipal police earn as little as $3.60 per day -- and
their "lack of professional or ethical training."

The arrests are the latest in a seemingly never ending parade of
police who have been detained on criminal charges since Mexico's
economy dived during a 1995 currency crisis.

Four months ago, authorities in four states arrested 87 police
officers and charged them with crimes that included rape, murder and
armed robbery.

A few weeks before that, nine Mexico City officers were charged with
raping three teen-aged girls.

In 1998, the top law enforcement officers of the southern state of
Morelos, including the state attorney general, were forced to resign
and were charged with various crimes after they allegedly tried to
discard the tortured body of a prisoner.

In 1997, 38 officers were detained in connection with the murder of
three youths they had arrested during a raid on a notoriously
crime-ridden section of Mexico City

Many residents of the capital say they see no end to the current crime
wave, and even the authorities are beginning to despair.

"If you were in my shoes you would see the immense number of people
that I try to bring into line each day," Mexico City Police Chief
Alejandro Gertz told a gathering of business leaders last month. "Each
day it slips from my hands.

"I need every one of you to help me. I am doing everything I can but I
am not the only one responsible. We all must pitch in."

Andrew Downie
Is a free-lance journalist based in Mexico City.