Mexico kills two, nabs 22 in bust of Sinaloa cartel smuggling ring
Source: Reuters
World | Sun Jan 31, 2016 2:56pm EST
Mexico kills two, nabs 22 in bust of Sinaloa cartel smuggling ring
MEXICO CITY | BY ANAHI RAMA
Twenty-two members of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel have been arrested and two were killed in a police raid near the U.S.-Mexico border where authorities seized assault-type weapons, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
Two were killed on Friday after they opened fire on Mexican federal police as they surrounded a building in the desert outside a small Mexican town where an armed group was running a drug and migrant smuggling operation, Mexico's federal police said in a statement on Sunday.
The secretive operation carried out by U.S. and Mexican authorities dealt a "strong blow" to the cartel, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, just weeks after the arrest of cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, following his escape from prison six months earlier.
"Due to the sensitive nature, this operation was conducted with utmost secrecy to maintain the element of surprise and to ensure the safety of the Mexican law enforcement officers executing it," ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement late Saturday.
The statement did not name the people taken into custody but said the operation dubbed "Mexican Operation Diablo Express" targeted high-level members of the drug trafficking organization.
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