Gunmen kill police investigator, 8 others in Mexico attacks

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AFP) — Nine people, including a senior police investigator, died in suspected drug-related violence in the past 24 hours in northern Mexico, local authorities said.

Mexican drug turf wars have claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people so far this year, despite a crackdown by authorities on drug trafficking and related violence.

An armed man entered the home of police commander Jose Ramon Escamilla in northern Durango State and shot him three times, wounding him fatally in the neck, the local prosecutor's office told journalists.

"The 40-year-old had been in the police service for 18 years," it added.

In the northern state of Chihuahua, the country's most violent, eight people were assassinated, including three in the volatile...