Mexican authorities disarm Acapulco's police in the face of infiltration problems by drug gangs: NPR

Federal and state authorities in Mexico disarmed all police in the city of Acapulco, with investigators suspecting that he had been infiltrated by drug gangs.

According to the Associated Press, the police officers "were stripped of their weapons, radios and bulletproof vests and were taken for background checks.

The dramatic measure was taken "because of suspicions that the force would have been infiltrated by criminal groups" and because of "the total inaction of the municipal police in the fight against the crime wave", said the government.

Authorities in Guerrero, Acapulco State, located on the southwestern coast of Mexico, have also issued arrest warrants for two municipal police commanders accused of murder.

Guerrero is considered one of the most violent regions of Mexico, with criminal gangs overseeing poppy cultivation for heroin production. Last year, the Washington Post described Acapulco, once a glittering resort for foreign travelers, "the murder capital of Mexico."

The joint operation of the Mexican Armed Forces, including the country's navy, as well as the federal and state police, led the US Embassy in Mexico City Tuesday to reiterate a warning to US citizens against the trip to Guerrero.[v]Serious crimes, such as homicides, kidnappings, carjackings and robberies, are widespread. "

Mexico News Daily reports that the municipal government of Acapulco, led by Mayor Evodio Velázquez Aguirre, had offered his full cooperation with the investigators.

As The Washington Post noted last year, "when … Aguirre took office in October 2015, he said, the municipal police was" totally out of control "."

"Half of the 1,500 officers have failed background checks and federal background checks.The police spent a large part of 2014 on strike to protest wages and benefits, leaving state forces and responsible federal " To post I said.

The AP writes:

"Last year, Acapulco had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 population, one of the highest in Mexico and in the world.

Local police in several parts of Mexico were dissolved because they were corrupted by drug cartels. In Guerrero alone, the local police have been disarmed in more than a dozen towns and villages since 2014, but none is as important as Acapulco.

In the state of Tamaulipas, in the north of the country, one of the hardest hit by drug-related violence, almost all local police forces in the country have been disbanded since 2011. "