6 Mexican Officers Jailed in Killings of 7 Drug Agents

Two generals and four other officers have been jailed on charges arising from the army’s killings of seven federal drug agents during an attempted drug bust in southeastern Mexico, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

The agents were killed trying to intercept a cocaine-laden plane at a clandestine airstrip 25 miles from the gulf port of Veracruz.

There was wide suspicion that the army had been protecting the airstrip for smugglers, who escaped during the Nov. 7 shooting.

According to newspaper accounts of the deaths, about 100 soldiers opened fire when a plane carrying federal drug agents landed at the airstrip shortly after a Cessna loaded with nearly 800 pounds of cocaine put down there.

The commander of the area, Gen. Alfredo Moran Acevedo, reportedly ignored the attorney general’s office when it pleaded with him by telephone to order his men to cease their fire. Autopsies show two agents were shot in the back at close range and a third was shot point-blank in the mouth, according to press reports.

The daily El Nacional said the six arrested men were being held without bail. It said a probe had exonerated 16 others.

Those awaiting trial were identified as Gen. Moran Acevedo, Brig. Gen. Humberto Martinez Lopez, Col. Nicolas Sanchez Rosa, Capt. Victor Manuel Jiminez Anscona, Lt. Jose Alfredo Vargas and Cpl. Lucio Malaga Escribano.