Mexican drug cartels’ “unprecedented” coordinated attacks kill five Mexican federal officials

(Bilal Ali Productions) Coordinated attacks in at least eight Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs

Another 18 federal officers were wounded, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing federal police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez.

The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), Notimex reported.

Following his arrest Saturday morning in Morelia, Michoacan, men armed with high-powered rifles and grenades attacked the police station where he was being held, the Secretary of Public Security said.

After failing to win his freedom, members of the group launched attacks in the cities of Morelia, Zitacuaro, Zamora, Lazaro Cardenas, Apatzingan, La Piedad and Huetamo in Michoacan state, Notimex news said, citing federal police.

Saturday’s attacks came just days after a drug gang in Tijuana declared they were at war with police, threatening to kill five officers every week until Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns.

The threat was made in a note found on the windshield of a slain officer’s car, news reports said.

At least three Tijuana officers have been killed since Monday, reports said. Leyzaola, a former army colonel, replaced a police chief removed from office in December after receiving numerous threats.

When you question our drug warriors about the rising tide of violence south of the border, they will claim that all these dead Mexicans – civilians, soldiers, police, and drug gangs – are a sign of progress.  They’ll tell you that the drug cartels are desperate because Mexican law enforcement is bringing the hammer down on them, so the cartels are reacting with increased violence, and the more bloody and violent they get, the more desperate they are.  They might even say we’ve “turned the corner” on this insurgency, the drug cartels are in their “last throes”, and “the surge is working.”

Somehow I don’t think that eases the pain of a Mexican madre who just lost her mio in the crossfire of a cartel / federal gun battle because American moralists can’t stand the thought of someone lighting up some Acapulco Gold instead of chugging a beer.