Government Investigation Suggests Mexican Federales Executed Cartel Members Carlos Loret de Mola - Fusion
go to original August 23, 2015

Friday, May 22, 2015. Federal police stand near the bodies of men who authorities say were suspected cartel gunmen at the Rancho del Sol. (Associated Press)

In May, Mexico’s National Security Commission informed the public that federal police had engaged in a gun battle with a large group of narcos from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The firefight occurred at 112-hectare farm known as “Rancho del Sol,” which overlooks a highway in the small municipality of Tanhuato, in the southern state of Michoacán.

The Security Commission said the gunfight started at 7 a.m. and lasted three hours. The narco gang had allegedly attempted to bring down a Mexican Black Hawk helicopter, but were ultimately outnumbered by police 2:1. The result was bloody: 42 of the alleged narcos and one federal agent were killed — an unusually lopsided outcome.

Authorities denied the incident was an extrajudicial killing, as some suspected. But almost three months later, investigators from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and local prosecutors have told me that the crime scene contradicts what the National Security Commission and the Federal Police reported.

Federal Police Commissioner Enrique Galindo has denied that any extrajudicial killings took place and did not comment further for this article. Prosecutors in Michoacán say that the investigation should continue at a federal level and the Attorney General’s Office, which has yet to confirm or deny the claims made in this report, has announced it will take over the investigation once local authorities conclude their “analysis.”

Read the rest at Fusion

Related: Mexico Drug War-Michoacán: Government Responsible for Getting to Bottom of What Happened in Tanhuato (Mexico Voices)

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