Drug runners…Mexico arrests over 30 cops in Michoacan state

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Mexico arrests over 30 cops in Michoacan state

File photo shows Mexican federal police officers

Mexican authorities say more than 30 police officers have been arrested for alleged links to organized crime and possible involvement in the killing of fellow cops.

A public safety source said on Sunday that the arrests took place in the troubled southwestern Michoacan state.

Among the detained include a former top public safety chief from the state’s northern city of Tarimbaro, an ex-commander of the unit as well as additional 18 active duty agents.

According to the source, authorities were investigating whether the 20 detained officers were involved in the recent murders of three senior officials of the city’s public safety unit.

In addition, Mexican authorities held a second operation, in which 12 municipal police officers in the state’s northwestern city of Charapan were arrested.

The violence-plagued state is a key drug trafficking area, where the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel has its base.

President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government has since he took office two years ago stepped up a crackdown on the drug cartel.

In January, Pena Nieto deployed 10,000 troops to the Michoacan State in a bid to restore security after civilians began to form “self-defense” militias last year to oust the Knights Templar drug cartel.

The turmoil in the violence-plagued state has become the biggest security challenge of the Nieto administration.

Gang violence has claimed about 80,000 lives in Mexico since 2007.

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