Mexico Under Siege

TWO TOP STATE POLICE OFFICERS SLAIN IN MEXICO

One of the Killings Occurs in Mexico State, Where 12 Officers Have
Been Killed in Five Days, Apparently by Gangs Seeking a Foothold in
Areas Near the Capital.

A police commander was ambushed by gunmen as he left home early
Monday, becoming the 12th officer slain in the central state of
Mexico in five days.

The spate of killings has claimed state and municipal officers in
half a dozen cities and towns since Thursday.

State authorities said the attacks appeared to be the work of
criminal gangs that have sought a foothold for drug trafficking and
other illegal activities in Mexico state, which borders Mexico City
on three sides.

Early Monday, Nestor Pena Sanchez, a state police commander, was shot
dead as he left his home in Toluca, the state capital, law
enforcement officials said.

Police are frequent targets in Mexico's rising drug violence that has
claimed about 4,000 lives this year. More than 500 police officers
and soldiers have been slain since President Felipe Calderon declared
an offensive against drug traffickers two years ago.

Corrupt police officers often work on behalf of gangs, making it
difficult to tell in many cases whether they died while enforcing the
law or violating it.

In Mexico state, the burst of violence against police began Thursday
with shootings of six state officers at separate road checkpoints set
up to hunt for drugs and guns. Five more officers -- two state police
and three municipal officers -- were shot to death Saturday.

Over the weekend, police announced the arrests of 10 suspects in the
shootings. The state's attorney general, Alberto Bazbaz, said many of
the suspects were from the neighboring state of Michoacan, which
serves as base for a drug trafficking gang known as La Familia.

Mexico state officials said the ambush-style attacks and use of
large-bore, semiautomatic weapons signaled the likely involvement of
organized-crime groups.

It was unclear whether the police slayings were related.

In other violence against police, authorities in the northern border
state of Sonora reported the assassination of the state's
second-ranking police official.

Sonora officials said Juan Manuel Pavon Felix died Sunday night in an
attack on the hotel where he was staying in the border city of
Nogales. Assailants fired guns and tossed two fragmentation grenades
as he entered the hotel; two officers were wounded.

Pavon had taken part in a police operation in Nogales,a drug
smuggling hub, officials said.

In the central state of Guanajuato, four police officers were slain
Monday in a pair of shootings that left two others injured, according
to Mexican news reports.

In early October, hooded killers fatally shot the mayor of Ixtapan de
la Sal after he reportedly rebuffed drug traffickers. Authorities
said he refused to allow dealing in his town, which is best known as
a spa getaway.

In September, authorities found the bodies of 24 men piled in a
wooded park just outside Mexico City. Police arrested two men,
including a municipal police commander, as suspects.