Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jun 2002
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2002, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

HIT MAN GUNNING FOR DRUG-SMUGGLER KILLS THREE, WOUNDS TWO IN MEXICAN BORDER 
CITY

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- A man wielding a machine gun burst into a bar in 
this border city and opened fire on a suspected drug smuggler and his 
friends, killing three people and wounding two others.

Police commander Arturo Pedroza said the attack occurred in the El Sitio 
bar shortly before midnight Wednesday. The gunman was after Ismael Flores 
Godines, a convicted drug pusher known as "El Mayelo."

Flores Godines was among those injured in the attack, Pedroza said.

Pedroza said local police officer Alfredo Guevara and ex-state police 
officer Arturo "The Russian" Gallegos were killed. Key drug smugglers often 
buy protection from corrupt police officials using a series of relatively 
small bribes, federal authorities say.

On Sunday, men with automatic weapons fired more than 10 shots at Flores 
Godines as he was walking to his home outside Nuevo Laredo, 550 miles north 
of Mexico City, across the border from Laredo, Texas.
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