Mexican governor fires local police force linked to gangs

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuato said Wednesday he has fired the entire police force of a town that had apparently been helping local drug gangs.

Gov. Diego Sinhue said Wednesday that more than 100 officers of the municipal police force in the town of Juventino Rosas had been disarmed and fired.

He said the town had became a “bastion for criminal groups,” but did not specify which gangs they were.

State police and National Guard took over law enforcement duties in the town, which has about 45,000 inhabitants. Two police employees were found with meth and marijuana, and others had apparently unregistered guns or ammunition.

Guanajuato is the state with highest number of homicides in all of Mexico, with 2,685 killings in the first nine months of 2021.

The industrial and farming state has been bloodied by turf wars between the Jalisco cartel and local gangs.