# Four Plainclothes Federal Officers Killed In Nuevo Laredo



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- *Four plainclothes federal police agents were killed Thursday after an unknown number of gunmen sprayed the unmarked pickup truck they were riding in with more than 30 bullets, investigators said.

The shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m. across from a grade school in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border city plagued by a spike in drug violence since last summer.

The victims were all members of a special operations and intelligence wing of the Federal Preventative Police, Mexico's public safety secretary said in a statement.

Three of the agents were identified by name and ranged in ages from 34 to 57.

All four were in an unmarked Ford pickup when the shooting started. Only the vehicle's driver remained unidentified, Almanza said.

There were no arrests in the case and investigators had yet to determine why the group might have been targeted. Forensic teams recovered more than 30 machine bullet shells at the scene.

The shooting occurred just as the grade school was letting out for the day. Witnesses said the agents had been seen snapping pictures in front of the Federal Palace, an administrative building housing, among other groups, the Federal Agency of Investigation.

The agents wore street clothes, but their military boots and short hair cuts made it obvious they were police officers, according to witnesses.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 50 people have been shot and killed in ambush-style attacks in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. The city of 330,000 has been caught in a turf war between rival drug gangs fighting for billion-dollar smuggling routes into the United States.

The city fired many of its police officers, replacing them with a new force whose members were vetted for links to drug traffickers. President Vicente Fox has assigned federal agents armed with automatic weapons to patrol the city in an effort to curb drug violence, but added police presence has done little to stop the killings.

Thursday's slayings came a day after 600 new members of the Federal Preventative Police arrived in Nuevo Laredo as part of extra-security efforts. The newly assigned agents moved into a military barracks and are also occupying fair grounds, both situated in western Nuevo Laredo, where violence has been especially bad. 
_Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed._​


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## EOD1 (Mar 11, 2004)

i've been there, that place sux


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