13 police officers killed after Gunmen ambush convoy in Mexico; probe underway

A group of men armed with guns attacked a patrol of law enforcement bodies in the central Mexican state of Mexico, leaving 13 officers dead on March 18. 

A spokesperson for the regional ministry of security said in a statement, "On late Thursday, a joint convoy of the security ministry and the prosecutor's office of the state of Mexico was ambushed by a criminal group in the Llano Grande district of the Coatepec Harinas municipality. Currently, we have information about eight killed officers of the security ministry and five dead employees of the prosecutor's office."

The spokesperson also added that the National Guard, army, navy, and intelligence have joined an operation to find those responsible for the attack. 

It is reported that gunmen allegedly from a drug gang ambushed a police convoy in central Mexico killing eight state police officers and five prosecution investigators in a gunfight.

'Mexico will respond to this attack with all its force'

The killing of 13 law enforcement officers in the State of Mexico was the second biggest killing of law enforcement since October 2019. Reports also state that one more attack took place on Thursday in the neighbouring municipality of Almoloya de Alquisiras, with four law enforcement officers having been killed in the incident.

After the attack, Rodrigo Martínez Celis, the head of the state Public Safety Department, informed that soldiers, marines, and National Guard troops were combing the area by land and from the air looking for the killers. He also said that the security forced of Mexico will respond to this attack with all its force. 

The convoy was carrying out patrols in the region, precisely to fight the criminal groups that operate in the area. However, soon the convoy was ambushed by a group of criminals. 

Similar kind of attack in 2019

In 2019, a similar kind of incident took place in Mexico City. Fourteen Mexican police officers lost their lives in an ambush in Michoacan. 

Five police patrol vehicles were travelling through the municipality of Aguililla in the early morning when they were ambushed by more than 30 armed individuals.