CNN/AP: Mexican (federal police) minister killed in helicopter crash

[DeepModem Mom]

Mexican minister killed in helicopter crash
Wreckage found in mountains near Mexico City
Wednesday, September 21, 2005


MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A helicopter carrying the Cabinet minister in charge of Mexico's federal police, his deputy and seven others crashed amid thick clouds outside Mexico City on Wednesday, and there were no survivors, the president said.

The Bell helicopter was carrying Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta -- whose ministry heads the federal police -- Federal Preventive Police Chief Tomas Valencia, five other passengers and a crew of two.

It had taken off from a military parade ground in Mexico City and was headed to an event at the maximum-security La Palma prison, 35 miles west of Mexico City, when it was crashied in dense clouds....

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The flight was on its way to a swearing-in ceremony for prison guards, the culmination of an effort to purge corrupt officials from a prison holding notorious Mexican drug gang leaders....

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A trusted (Vicente) Fox ally, Huerta was appointed to lead the agency in August 2004 after the previous secretary, Alejandro Gertz Manero, resigned to return to private life....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/21/helicopter.missing.ap/index.html