Roadway bombs planted by drug cartel in Mexico kill 4 police officers, 2 civilians

A drug cartel set off a coordinated series of seven roadway bombs in western Mexico that killed four police officers and two civilians, officials said Wednesday. The governor of Jalisco state said the explosions were “a trap” set by the cartel to kill law enforcement personnel.

Luis Méndez, the chief prosecutor of Jalisco state, said the blasts late Tuesday in the township of Tlajomulco were so powerful they left craters in the road, destroyed at least four vehicles and wounded 14 other people.

It appeared to be the first time that a Mexican cartel killed law enforcement personnel with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, and was the latest example of the increasingly open, military-style challenge posed by the country’s drug cartels.

Méndez said the two dead civilians were in a vehicle that happened to be passing the spot when the IEDs detonated in Tlajomulco, near the state capital of Guadalajara. He suggested the bombs may have been remotely detonated, saying the blast “happened at the moment they wanted.”

Read more: ABC News