GUNMEN KILL MEXICAN POLICE COMMANDER

RAMOS ARIZPE, MEXICO -- Assailants shot dead a police commander in a
wealthy Monterrey suburb Saturday, the latest in a wave of killings of
law enforcement officials across Mexico.

Mario Sanchez, 47, was killed by gunmen after he finished a night
shift in San Nicolas de los Garza, one of the country's most affluent
municipalities, Mexican media reported.

Police in Monterrey did not answer calls seeking to confirm the
killing.

Gunmen linked to drug-trafficking gangs have increasingly targeted
police and soldiers as President Felipe Calderon wages a national
offensive against the cartels, which make billions of dollars
smuggling cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin into the
United States.

On Wednesday, a group of about 50 armed men drove into the town of
Cananea, near the Sonora border, and killed five police officers.

The assailants then fled to the hills pursued by police and soldiers.
Sixteen of the gunmen were killed.

Meanwhile, the leader of a state investigative police team was fatally
shot Friday in Hermosillo, the Sonora state capital.