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Mexican Resort Becomes War Zone As Cartels, Cops Get Into Gun Battle

Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Lott

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JP Carroll National Security & Foreign Affairs Reporter
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Mexican cartel killers shot up the local federal police headquarters as well as a hotel known to be frequented by cops in the tourist town of Acapulco in what became a two-hour gun battle Sunday.

The BBC reports that tourists and locals alike in the Las Playas area of Acapulco quickly fled to to nearby stores to wait things out during the shootout. Things only quieted down after 11 pm.

The volley of bullets ultimately left one of the cartel sicarios — the Mexican term for hitmen — dead and one cop wounded, according to cops who anonymously spoke with the Associated Press.

Cartel thugs reportedly launched their offensive against the feds in response to a major arrest earlier in the day of Beltran Leyva Cartel’s senior leader known as “The Donkey.”

Acapulco in Mexico’s Guerrero state has increasingly become one of the most violent communities in Mexico.

Guerrero state is home to multiple warring cartels. Guerreros Unidos, The Independent Cartel of Acapulco, and the rising Jalisco Cartel New Generation all operate within the state.

Acapulco for many years was seen as a popular tourist town for celebrities and college kids on spring break. The famed beachfront destination’s tourism industry is no longer what it once was due to years of cartel violence.

Things have gotten so bad in Guerrero, that the U.S. Department of State only allows its employees to go to two towns by air –neither of which is Acapulco.

“Guerrero was the most violent state in Mexico in 2015 for the third year in a row, with a murder rate of 57 per 100,000 residents, according to the Mexican Secretariado Ejecutivo Nacional de Seguridad Publica,” according to the State Department Travel Warning.

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