EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Leaders in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua gathered on Sunday for the funeral of a National Guard officer killed in a cartel ambush last week.
Col. Juan Manuel Corral Hernandez, an infantry officer with the 23rd Battalion of the Mexican National Guard, was on patrol duties in a town in the southern part of the state when his unit came under fire last Wednesday.
Corral received gunshot wounds to the chest and was taken by a military helicopter to a hospital, where he later died. Chihuahua state authorities said 16 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack and several guns seized. Mexican news media have identified the suspects as members of a Sinaloa cartel cell.
On Jan. 26, a soldier on patrol near Guadalupe y Calvo was similarly shot dead. And a few days ago, another Mexican army officer, a soldier and a state police agent were hospitalized after their unit was attacked by explosives dropped from a drone, also near Guadalupe y Calvo.
“We’ve had a pair of incidents in which members of organized crime are using drones with explosives to hinder our personnel on the ground,” Chihuahua state police Chief of Staff Luis Aguirre said on Monday. “There is a strong presence by the Ministry of Defense and we are making substantial advances.”
Those include the recent seizure of three drones, eight rifles including one with armor-piercing rounds, and a machine gun, all near Guadalupe y Calvo, Aguirre said.
“We will continue working in those areas with permanent patrols and getting close to the community to ensure safe conditions in Guadalupe y Calvo,” Aguirre said.
Security experts have told Border Report that southwestern Chihuahua is part of a region in Mexico known as “The Golden Triangle.” It’s a drug production and drug-trafficking area encompassing parts of the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua. The roads in the region leading away from the Pacific Coast toward major Mexican cities like Torreon, Saltillo and Monterrey, and eventually South Texas also are being disputed by the Sinaloa cartel and the local La Linea.
Read: Read More