GANGS KILL POLICE AFTER ISSUING THREATS OVER THEIR RADIOS

Mexican drug gangs near the U. S. border are breaking into police
radio frequencies to issue chilling death threats to officers which
they then carry out, demoralizing security forces in a worsening drug
war.

"You're next. . . . We're going to get you," an unidentified drug gang
member said over the police radio in the city of Tijuana after naming
a police officer.

The man also threatened a second officer by name and played
foot-stomping "narcocorrido" music, popular with drug cartels, over
the airwaves.

"No one can help them," an officer named Jorge said of his threatened
colleagues as he heard the threats in his patrol car.

Sure enough, two hours later the dead bodies of the two named police
officer were found dumped on the edge of the city, their hands tied
and bullet wounds in their heads.

Cartels killed some 530 police in Mexico last year, some of them
corrupt officers who were working for rival gangs. Others were killed
in shootouts or murdered for working against the gangs or refusing to
turn a blind eye to drug shipments.

Violence has hit shocking levels in Tijuana, over the border from San
Diego, since President Felipe Calderon launched an army crackdown on
traffickers in late 2006, stirring up new wars between rival cartels
over smuggling routes.

The drug war is scaring tourists and investors away from northern
Mexico, forcing some businesses to shutter just as the country heads
into recession this year.

Badly paid Tijuana municipal police, often accused of collaborating
with rival wings of the local Arellano Felix cartel, are badly
demoralized, senior officers say.

"These death threats are part of the psychological warfare that
organized crime is using against officers,"said Tijuana police chief
Gustavo Huerta.

"Before, the gangs began infiltrating the radio after a police
execution, which was bad enough, but now they are doing it beforehand
and the force feels terrorized," he said.

Officers in threadbare uniforms and worn-out body armour say they are
no match for drug gangs with powerful weapons and state-of-the-art
technology.

Some police cling to religious trinkets and pray for protection, but
many others have taken early retirement.