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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A Policia Federal detachment based in Fresnillo Zacatecas has left the area and is to be redeployed to Sinaloa state, according to Mexican news accounts.
A story posted Thursday on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily said that the PF unit was rotated out as a normal rotation and that a replacement unit would be arriving in the area within a week.
At least one PF unit previously deployed to La Laguna region was ordered to leave last February. A number of other PF units had been moved to Zacatecas as army units were shifted to Tamaulipas and Coahuila to aid in the ongoing counternarcotics Operacion Noreste headed by the Mexican Army.
Zacatecas is home to at least three Mexican Army infantry battalions, and several permanent bases were completed or were due to be completed last spring for them. But the Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican Army, has been constantly shifting forces in and out of La Laguna and Tamaulipas since the start of this year, presumably to keep those deployments fresh, to give army units counternarcotics operations experience and to prevent security problems.
The Mexican Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP), the controlling agency for the Policia Federal constantly rotates forces in and out of troublespots, like the military, to provide experience and to reduce security problems.
The Sinaloa deployment is the first publicly announced deployment of PF forces since last May, when heavy intergang fighting erupted in Choix and El Fuerte municipalities killing 57 by this writer's count. Since ten days ago, 18 more dead including seven Sinaloa state police agents were killed in that remote mountain area. The intergang fighting involves gangs associated with the Sinaloa Cartel versus the Beltran-Leyva, Juarez Cartels and Los Zetas.
At last report, some 200 effectives were deployed to the area including Mexican Army and Policia Federal units, as well as Sinaloa state police operatives.
In other news a total of seven individuals have been killed in gang and drug related incidents in Zacatecas state, including a Zacatecas state ministerial agent, according to separate news items posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas.
- Three unidentified armed suspects were killed Thursday night when Zacatecas state police operatives exchanged gunfire with criminal suspects in Zacatcas city. Two state ministerial agents were wounded in the gunfight. The firefight shut down the thoroughfare most of the night. Three other suspects were detained following the firefight. One Zacatecas ministerial agent, Horacio de la Cruz, died following the gun battle.
- Last Monday night two unidentified individuals were executed in Guadalupe by armed suspects. The victims were said to have a nexus with organized crime and the executions probably stemmed from rivalries between two local drug gangs. The shooting took place in front of a convenience store in Las Quintas colony at around 2200 hrs.
- One unidentified man was shot to death in Zacatecas city Thursday night. The victim was shot once in the head and once in the chest on Avenida Garcia Salinas near the Oxxo convenience store. The report said the victim had been working as a lookout for a local drug gang.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com