Drug hitmen kill top Mexican cop in front of son

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-12 10:28

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Suspected drug hitmen killed a senior Mexican policeman in front of his 16-year-old son on Monday, sources from the attorney general's office in the state of Chihuahua said.

Pedro Aragones, in charge of the state's forensic investigations, was shot when his car stopped at a traffic light in the capital city of Chihuahua.

His son was not hurt but Aragones' bodyguard was badly wounded. The murder comes after the killing last week of another senior policeman in the state.

Police commander Vidal Barraza, who was investigating the 600 drug murders in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez this year, was shot as he stepped out of his house.

Despite the deployment of 3,000 troops and federal police in Ciudad Juarez this year, the city has become Mexico's most violent front in a narcotics war that has killed 2,000 people nationwide in 2008 alone.

Gun battles have erupted on busy streets and buildings have been set on fire as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, fights the Juarez cartel for control of Ciudad Juarez and its lucrative smuggling corridor into the United States.

President Felipe Calderon is in the middle of reshuffling the top level of Mexico's attorney general's office as he struggles to curb powerful drug gangs. He made fighting the narcotics trade a cornerstone of his administration when he took office in 2006.