Deputy police chief, bodyguard slain in Mexican border city of Nogales

Deputy police chief, bodyguard murdered in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen in a pickup truck shot dead a deputy police chief and his bodyguard in the border city of Nogales, across from the Arizona city of the same name.

Sonora state police said Friday that the attackers opened fire on the victims with Kalashnikov rifles the previous night.

Tony Estrada, sheriff of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, said the killings were very troubling amid concerns that drug violence could spill over the border, but he believes Mexico’s drug traffickers don’t want to tangle with U.S. authorities.

“Their turf wars are on the Mexican side right now, and that’s where they’re concentrating all of their violence,” Estrada said. “And we’re hopeful that’s where it will stay.”

The U.S. State Department recently offered to compensate its employees in Nogales and other border cities who send family members out of the area because of concerns about rising drug violence.

Nearly 17,900 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led assault on cartels after taking office in December 2006.

Also Friday, in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, police found the body of a man dumped near a highway. The man had a noose around his neck and his body appeared to have been tortured, state police said in a news release.