SOLE FEMALE OFFICER IN JUAREZ VALLEY TOWN KIDNAPPED

The only police officer remaining in a string of border towns in the
Juarez Valley has been kidnapped, Chihuahua state officials said Saturday.

Gunmen stormed into the home of Erika Gandara about 6 a.m. Thursday
in the town of Guadalupe and abducted her, said Carlos Gonzalez, a
spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general.

Gandara, 28, was the sole officer in the municipality of Guadalupe,
which stretches from the outskirts of Juarez to the Big Bend area.
Guadalupe is about two miles from Tornillo, Texas.

An officer was shot dead the week Gandara joined the Police
Department as a dispatcher in June 2009. The other seven officers
resigned out of fear within a year. Some quit after gunmen killed the
mayor of Guadalupe, Jesus Manuel Lara, in June of this year.

So Gandara alone was left to police the dangerous ranching towns of the border.

"I see this as any other job," she said during a November interview
with the El Paso Times.

But it wasn't.

Since June, Gandara had been the lone ranger in the municipality of
9,000 people. Armed with an AR-15 rifle and a revolver, Gandara
worked in a lawless and remote area where residents hide in their
homes after the sun sets.

Gandara drove herself to murder scenes, where she alerted the Mexican
Army as well as state investigative agents. In Mexico, local police
departments do not handle murder investigations.

But Gandara responded to a high-profile case in late October when
riflemen opened fire on a bus, killing three women and a man who
worked at a factory. She was also at the site where two women in
their 20s were shot dead in early December.

The mayor of Guadalupe could not be reached for comment Saturday.
City officials in the neighboring municipality of Praxedis Guerrero
said they had not been briefed on the kidnapping case.

Praxedis also has a young woman in charge of its police department.
The police chief is 20-year-old Marisol Valles.

Gandara did not seem to fear for her life. She told the El Paso Times
on Nov. 8 that she had received no threats. She also said she would
prefer to die before taking a bribe from criminals.

Two drug-trafficking organizations, the Sinaloa and Juarez drug
cartels, are battling for control in the Juarez Valley, U.S. Border
Patrol officials said. In March, violence intensified in the area
with about 50 murders, dozens of arsons and even more extortions.
This sparked an exodus of residents, who fled to Texas towns or Juarez.

Last week more attacks plagued the area Gandara policed.

The home of a town alderman was set on fire Dec. 18, state officials
said. On Christmas Eve, police found a man shot dead at a boot store
in the heart of the town of Guadalupe.