Gunmen Attack Police In Mexico's Guanajuato As Several Killed, Injured

Several people were killed after an armed group sparked a firefight with police after they attacked a police station in the north-central state of Guanajuato on Sunday. Authorities in the city of Celaya said several attackers were killed in the shoot-out but did not give an exact number. The unprovoked assault by the gunmen occurred just on the outskirts of the city.

According to Associated Press, police chief Jesús Rivera reported that three police officers had been wounded in the attack, but did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. Guanajuato is a state riddled with violence as it sees the highest number of homicides among Mexico’s 32 states.

The frequent bloodshed in the streets within the state is caused by a turf war between rival criminal syndicates such as the Jalisco cartel and local gangs sponsored by its arch-rival, the Sinaloa cartel. The Department of Justice has labeled the Jalisco cartel to be one of the five most notorious and dangerous transnational criminal organizations, and its leader Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho” among the most sought-after drug kingpins in the country.

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has listed the Jalisco Cartel as one of the Mexican criminal syndicates responsible for flooding fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl is known to have taken the lives of tens of thousands of Americans who have been pushed to the brink of uncontrolled addiction and is now being highly marketed to younger generations. Rivera said the cartel typically coordinates its well-thought-out schemes to smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. and sells it to users in the form of counterfeit pills. These are usually concealed among other narcotics--their other devious methods to drive Americans into drug addiction for profit.

On Thursday, nine more people were killed in Guanajuato after another armed group entered a bar and opened fire on its patrons. Among those killed were four women, including a waitress. Authorities said the attack occurred at night in the town of Apaseo el Alto and is said to be the third massacre in a series of attacks on bars within the state. The violence has also been linked to the ongoing turf war between the rival cartels. After the gunmen had plastered the bar with bullets, they left the handwritten posters, signed by the Santa Rosa de lima gang.