Woman Tied to Army, Cartels Slain in Mexico

A woman recently identified as a key link between allegedly corrupt Mexican army officials and drug traffickers was slain Tuesday, officials said.

Irma Lizeth Ibarra Navaja, a 44-year-old lawyer, was gunned down by a man riding a motorcycle at a street corner in this city in western Mexico, authorities said. She later died at a hospital.

According to purportedly secret army documents published by the Mexican news magazine Proceso on Sunday, Ibarra maintained liaisons with a number of high-level army officers while answering to two major drug traffickers.

The army documents were leaked to Proceso during an army investigation of two officers who were caught illegally copying them from computer disks.

Hours after the Proceso report appeared, the army admitted that 34 mostly retired officers have been arrested this year for alleged connections to drug traffickers.