Two Mexican state police officers from Sonora were kidnapped and executed Sunday. The double execution brings the total number of officers killed the border state to 10 in 2019.
The pair from Policía Estatal de Seguridad Pública-PESP were discovered in a rural area along the Sonoyta-Peñasco Highway in Plutarco Elías Calles. Commander Alberto Vázquez Varela and agent Martín Roberto Piñuelas Chávez were reportedly kidnapped by a group of cartel gunmen on Sunday morning while on duty. Their bodies were later dumped in the rural area known as “El Lienzo Charro.” Both were still dressed in their uniforms and appeared to be handcuffed when discovered Sunday evening with multiple gunshot wounds each, according to local media reports.
Commander Vázquez Varela was recently assigned to Sonoyta after working in San Luis Río Colorado, which borders San Luis, Arizona. He also worked in Puerto Peñasco, according to José David Anaya Cooley–the Secretary of Public Security for the State of Sonora. Military, state, and Federal Police were deployed to the area to locate the gunmen responsible.
Breitbart News and local outlets previously made note of the eight police murders in Sonora in 2019.
On January 31, San Carlos Bay Chief of Police Marco Antonio Vinicio Gálvez was killed when cartel gunman pulled alongside his vehicle in Empalme and fired multiple rifle rounds.
On February 27, ministerial police agent Said Villa Hernández was killed after being attacked by gunmen was outside the Esperanza police station.
On March 11, state ministerial police agent Francisco Asdrubal Real Morales from Navojoa, Sonora, was killed by cartel gunmen while attending training in Hermosillo.
On April 9, Aarón Guadalupe Arbayo Acuña, a narcotics police commander, was killed by cartel gunmen as he was driving his duty SUV in Hermosillo.
On April 15, Jesús Ernesto López Rojas, a San Carlos-Guaymas municipal police officer, was killed by cartel gunmen on the outskirts of San Carlos.
On April 23, Commander César Alejandro García Medina was killed in Hermosillo after a group of cartel gunmen opened fire on his vehicle.
On May 7, police director José Gonzalo Villaseñor Perez and his bodyguards were ambushed by a team of cartel gunmen while patrolling the streets of Ciudad Obregón, leaving one bodyguard dead and the director seriously wounded.
On May 17, commander Hugo Zavala, the head of the Homicide Unit for the Agencia Ministerial de Investigación Criminal (AMIC) in Hermosillo was killed by a group of unknown cartel gunmen.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com
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