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The massive, near-simultaneous raids, which federal officials
called “Operation Swarm,” took place in two rural towns in the
State of Mexico, west of Mexico City, as well as in two populous
suburbs right on the edge of the country's capital.
The federal Public Safety Department said the seven officials
arrested “were linked to criminal groups.” and were accused of
“crimes like extortion, kidnaping and homicide.” It was not
clear if formal charges had been filed against them yet.
State prosecutors said the police chief of the one of the rural
towns, Texcaltitlan, killed himself with his own weapon as
marines, National Guard and soldiers closed in to try to arrest
him on unspecified charges.
And troops also arrested the mayor of the nearby town of
Amanalco on “various charges," and also detained the town's
police chief and another local official. They also arrested the
police chief of the town of Tejupilco, farther south.
The area around those towns has long been dominated by the
violent La Familia Michoacana gang, which deals in drugs,
kidnapping and extortion.
While some of the raids targeted rural areas, authorities also
detained the assistant police chief of Naucalpan, a sprawling
suburb of 775,000 inhabitants on the northwest edge of Mexico
City.
Later, they announced the arrest of a top police chief in the
suburb of Ixtapaluca, to the east of Mexico City, which has
about 370,000 inhabitants.
Gangs and drug cartels have long infiltrated, intimidated or
bribed local officials into working for them, often going so far
as to take a cut of the municipal budget or use local police
forces to warn them or protect them from federal raids.
Sometimes, police officers simply profit freelance from the drug
trade.
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