Police coordinator, assistant killed in western Mexico

Mexico City, Agency
The state police coordinator and an administrative assistant were ambushed and killed over the weekend in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, prosecutors said.

Alfredo Valentin Yañes Piñon and his assistant, Claudia Equihua Hernandez de Jauregui, were killed Saturday on the Charo-Aeropuerto highway near the water treatment plant in the community of Atapaneo, the Michoacan state Attorney General's Office said.

The 36-year-old Hernandez de Jauregui "lost her life as a result of the wounds caused by several impacts from firearms," the AG's office said in a statement.

The 42-year-old Yañes Piñon's vehicle was hit by at least 15 rounds, the AG's office said.

Investigators found several 7.62 mm bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles at the crime scene.

The La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, which has carried out several attacks on local and federal officials, operates in the state.

La Familia Michoacana, which is led by Servando Gomez Martinez, makes money from drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and illegal mining.

The criminal organization, however, has sought to burnish its image with ordinary Mexicans by building schools and dealing out rough justice to rapists and robbers.

The wave of drug-related violence in Mexico has left more than 28,000 people dead.

More than 7,000 gangland killings have occurred so far this year in Mexico, according to officials, while the death toll for all of 2009 was 7,724.