Guadalajara -
Mexican attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam has announced that six federal agents were killed in a plane accident Tuesday in Zacatecas, a state in north central Mexico, where they had gathered the day before to serve arrest warrants on three members of the notorious Los Zetas drug cartel. The plane crashed about noon, he said.
The dead included three law enforcement agents and the pilot, copilot and a mechanic. All were employees of the Procuraduría, Mexico's justice ministry. The three police officers were assigned to SEIDO, an agency which investigates drug cartel and organized crime activity.
The victims arrived Monday in the capital of Zacatecas, a city of the same name with a population of about 150,000, to carry out the Zeta arrests. They delivered their prisoners to a local facility without incident, and departed for their home base in Mexico City the same day. But shortly after leaving the airport mechanical problems forced them to return, where they remained overnight until their second attempt on Tuesday. Disaster struck almost immediately.
The PGR aircraft, a 1985 King Air 300, went down about 10 minutes after takeoff. The cause has not been determined. The accident is under investigation by Mexico's federal aeronautics authority.
"We profoundly regret the loss of these public servants as they carried out their duties in strict accord with their legal obligation, and in service to the community," said Karam.
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