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MEXICO CITY - Gunmen shot and killed a local police chief today in Acapulco, a Mexican beach resort that has been sucked into a bloody turf war between drug gangs in northern and western Mexico, local media reported.
Gunmen in two or three vehicles shot up to nine bullets into 45-year-old Jorge Arturo Lopez, a chief detective in Guerrero state, as he was getting into his car in the old town of Acapulco, according to reports in two Mexican dailies.
Local police and justice officials would not immediately confirm the killing, but relatives of the victim told Mexican radio on Saturday that Lopez had received death threats.
The shooting came a day after one of Mexico's worst death counts this year, with 15 people reported murdered on Friday in gangland-style killings related to organized crime.
The victims, including two found inside the trunk of a car with their hands bound, were spread across western and northern states and Mexico City.
Some 2,000 people were killed in drug-related violence last year.
Killings have continued apace this year despite President Felipe Calderon sending out thousands of troops within days of taking power in December to hunt down drug trafficking gangs.
- REUTERS
