Suspected members of a criminal cell shot down a patrol helicopter during a police operation aimed to detain the criminals. Four officers and a pilot were killed.
Photo: EFE
A patrol helicopter was shot down by suspected members of a criminal cell during a police operation in the southwestern Mexican town of Apatzingan, located in the western part of the state of Michoacan, the state’s governor said. As result, four officers and a pilot were killed.
The officers were going to arrest gang leaders of the town, known for its drug cartels, and the helicopter provided air support to the police operating in the area.
“During the operation, an official helicopter which was supporting the patrol in area of difficult access was shot down,” governor of the state, Silvano Aureoles wrote on Twitter. “We lament the death of the pilot, three police officers and a police officer who was injured.”
The governor also promised that gang violence in the city will be continued to be tackled by both the federal and the state authorities.
“In compliance with the responsibility to protect citizens, neither the state, nor the federation is going to give up in the struggle against crime,” Aureoles said, pointing out that the efforts to detain the criminals are under way.
However, the incident was not the first one, when the gang cells knock down a helicopter, belonging to the local law-enforcement in Mexico.
In May 2015, a military helicopter, participating in the anti-cartel state offensive codenamed ‘Operation Jalisco,’ was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade by mobsters from Jalisco New Generation drug cartel in the western state of Jalisco. As result, six soldiers were killed.
The state of Michoacan is known as one of the centers of organized crime in Mexico. In December 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon sent the country’s army to the state, trying to counter the sprawling drug mafia there.
Apatzingan town was a stronghold of the Knights Templar drug cartel, whose leaders were detained by the police in February 2015. After this, the struggle for power in Michoacan between several rival gangs has exacerbated.
What a shithole.
Build that wall :D
but take your cia nacked cartels with you and your stinking veterans we are sick of have to deal with your demented people after usa military doing to them you have living in mexico a lot of your junkies and pedophiles take them too please since you want to take out decent hard working familys please take your fucking huma thrash out of mexico first you even can leave regular thrash just take your human thrash
Throw that trash out yourself, my friend.
I am not an american …
You are both idiots.
you need a job usa welfare its running low
we do it, perv veterans are not welcome here not the pedophilesn but of course we are not gringos regular people are welcome to come and chill been xenophobic like a gringo its no the idea, soo its funny you said mexico its a shithole you should visit jalisco and see how beutiful it is
Just like many americans that live permanently in Mexico are scum, you have to admit that many of the mexicans that cross illegally are criminals and desperate people.
That’s why many people are racist, they have their reasons, they aren’t just haters and bigots.
they are haters and bigost because they were raise that way happens here in mexico too, im not saying that americans can’t live in mexico of course they can and many live here and are good people (mostly elders actualy but they still good people). dude really i dont know where you from but media have you brainwash, just think if mexico its a lawless country why you will go to hide in the worst police state in the world(usa)? thats make sense to you? desperate people i agree with you people desperate to improve its family living conditions and dude mexicans in usa do the jobs nobody whant to do it and get paid below the minimon wages and without any right by law yes because its desperate people but think who employ them? who nenefits from not having to pay ensurance and proper wages? who benefits from its desperation? i agree that we need to fix our problems instead of export them and really people here are trying but mexican regime its ally with usa goverment (and of course benefit from it but not to the benefit of mexicans) but they are ruthless and people its afraid
The templars are relatively small compared to some other cartels but have access to some military grade weapons, not manpads though yet. This bird was likely brought down via machine gun fire from low altitude. The Mexican “government”, like the us “government”, activity cooperate with some of the Mexican cartels and is one reason some cartels have access to some of the weapons they do. The us government tends to use drug gangs in south and central america for similar purposes as the ignorant wahabis the us supports in the middle east.
An just like in the Middle east, any time any halfway reformist government has come along that might reduce the corruption in which the cartels thrive, we have gotten rid of it, either overtly, as with Pershing’s invasion, or covertly, through the usual combination of assassination, backing terrorists and coups, bribery, the IMF and other economic attacks, etc.