Pubdate: Sat, 29 Dec 2012
Source: Stamford Advocate, The (CT)
Copyright: 2012 Southern Connecticut Newspaper, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1522

MEXICAN NAVY KILLS 4 TRYING TO ROB DRUG BOSS' BODY

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican marines have slain four gunmen who
apparently were trying to steal the body of a Zetas cartel chieftain
killed by the military a day before in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

The state government said the gunmen evidently wanted to take the body
of Angel Enrique Uscanga, nicknamed "The Pokemon," identified as the
leader of the brutal gang in that region.

The gunmen shot at marines from a vehicle after they arrived late
Friday in the city of Cordoba at the building, where authorities were
keeping the bodies of Uscanga and four others who had died in a
firefight with the military. The marines shot back and killed the four
armed men, said a government statement. Authorities confiscated a
grenade and other weapons.

In October, Zetas cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano was shot by Mexican
marines in northern Mexico and his body was stolen from a funeral home
12 hours afterward. It raised doubts in Mexico about whether the
feared drug lord had really been killed, but officials said
fingerprints and photographs taken before the theft proved he was slain.

Veracruz officials say Uscanga and the other four men had been killed
in a confrontation with the military last Thursday, but the government
didn't offer many details of that gunfight other than it also happened
in the city of Cordoba. The marines there seized six rifles, a rocket
and a rocket launcher.

Hundreds of marines were deployed to Veracruz in 2011 after drug
violence began to rise as gangs allied to the Sinaloa Cartel began
fighting the dominant Zetas, a paramilitary organized-crime group
founded by ex-members of the Mexican special forces.
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