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Law officials decapitated in Mexican resort town

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 21, 2006

ACAPULCO, Mexico - The decapitated heads of two police officials were found early Thursday dumped in front of a government building in this Pacific coast resort, authorities said.

The heads of police commander Mario Nunez Magana and officer Jesus Alberto Ibarra were found at the same site where four drug traffickers died during a shootout with law enforcement. The heads of the two, who were involved in the Jan. 27 shootout, were accompanied by sign warning, "So that you learn to respect."

They were discovered about 3 a.m. in front of the city's Finance Department, just more than a mile from the city's main tourist zone, said local attorney general official Rogelio Quevedo Mendoza.

Colleagues said both were kidnapped Wednesday, but police said they had no information on their disappearance.

The discovery came just hours after Zeferino Torreblanca, the governor of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, announced that he was investing $12-million to acquire heavy-duty weapons, new bulletproof vests and modernized radios for the police force.

Acapulco, 180 miles southwest of Mexico City, has been shaken this year by more than a dozen high-profile shooting deaths and several grenade attacks on police stations. Federal investigators link the violence to a turf war between drug gangs.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:43:05]