Convoy ambush kills seven Mexican police

Gunmen have swarmed a convoy transporting two prisoners in northern Mexico, shredding three police vehicles with bullets and killing seven officers and one inmate.

Six officers and the second inmate were wounded.

Attackers travelling in about 20 vehicles caught the police convoy in a crossfire on Sunday near the city of Guasave, Sinaloa state Attorney-General Marco Antonio Higuera said.

"The patrol vehicles were destroyed. It was practically a massacre," Higuera said. "Initial reports indicate there were 1200 shell casings at the scene."

The three state police patrol vehicles were travelling to the state capital of Culiacan when they came under fire from attackers who apparently lay in wait on a highway. Higuera said the officers fought off a first attack but were later caught in concentrated fire from a larger number of vehicles.

Federal police, meanwhile, said a newly captured leader of the Zetas drug cartel revealed it has a non-aggression pact with three other gangs - the Juarez, Beltran Leyva and Arellano Felix organisations. While the four gangs are not known to have fought major turf wars with each other, it was the first mention of a formal truce between them.

The alleged Zetas leader, Marcos Carmona Hernandez, was arrested on Monday in the southern state of Oaxaca, said Ramon Pequeno, the federal police anti-narcotics chief.

Hernandez, 29, allegedly took over command of Zetas operations in Oaxaca after the January 17 arrest of his reputed predecessor, Flavio Mendez Santiago. Pequeno said Hernandez is suspected of several kidnappings and murders and allegedly had the collaboration of corrupt state and municipal police.

Pequeno said Hernandez revealed the non-aggression pact to police, the latest insight into Mexico's drug underworld of shifting alliances.

The agreement, however, appeared to be confirmation of reality more than a game-changer. The four gangs in the pact have a common enemy: the powerful Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the world's most-wanted drug lords.

Meanwhile, three severed heads were found on Monday in plastic bags outside a tunnel that connects central Acapulco to the outskirts of the city.

The victims were all male, the Guerrero state Public Safety Department said in a statement.

A note left at the scene said the beheadings were revenge for the killing of a man who was shot dead during an attempted kidnapping.

Police also announced the capture of a suspected prominent drug gang member who allegedly oversaw kidnappings, extortion, bribery and local drug distribution for the "independent cartel of Acapulco," a group that splintered from the Beltran Leyvas.

Benjamin Flores Reyes, alias "The Godfather," was arrested on Sunday after a six-month investigation, the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement.

Flores studied criminal psychology for a time during 15 years he spent living in the United States, the statement added. He returned to Mexico about three years ago and allegedly signed up with the organisation formerly led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie," who was arrested last year.

The government of President Felipe Calderon has brought down an unprecedented number of cartel bosses since launching a military offensive against drug traffickers in December 2006.

However, violence has soared as Mexico's drug cartels have become increasingly splintered and aggressive. More than 35,000 people have been killed nationwide in the past four years.

[Source : AAP]