Troops arrive in narcotics hotbed

Thousands of troops moved into Mexico’s violent Sinaloa state to fight a powerful drug cartel, after a wave of police slayings across the country.

The soldiers arrived in military transport planes as helicopters hovered over the state capital, Culiacan, and troops joined federal police in setting up roadblocks and patrolling streets.

Dozens of military vehicles, some with heavy machine guns, roared through the city on their way to the nearby town of Navolato, passing a bullet-riddled police vehicle on a tow truck.

Marijuana-producing Sinaloa on Mexico’s Pacific coast is home to a federation of drug gangs run by Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, who escaped from prison in 2001.