The entire police force in a small Mexican town abruptly resigned Tuesday after its new headquarters was viciously attacked by suspected drug cartel gunmen. All 14 police officers in Los Ramones, a rural town in northern Mexico, fled the force in terror after gunmen fired more than 1,000 bullets and flung six grenades at their headquarters on Monday night.
No one was injured in the attack. Mayor Santos Salinas Garza told local media that the officers resigned because of the incident.
The gunmen’s 20-minute shooting spree destroyed six police vehicles and left the white and orange police station pocked with bullet holes, the Financial Times reported.
The station had been inaugurated just three days earlier.
The attack was the second in less than a week against police forces in Nuevo Leon. Last week, thugs threw two grenades at police in Sabinas Hidalgo, according to newspaper Noroeste.
Los Ramones is in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, which has been a war zone of turf violence between two of the country’s fiercest drug gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.
Police have blamed members of both cartels for attacks on several police stations throughout the area. Several mayors in the region have been assassinated.
Mexico’s municipal police forces often quit out of fear after being attacked by cartels.
About 90% of forces have less than 100 officers, and 61% of cops earn less than $322 a month, according to the Finanical Times.
Mexico’s intelligence chief said this summer that nearly 30,000 people have died in drug related crimes since 2006.
With Wire News Services