Assassination of Manuel Farfan Corriola

Around midnight on February 2 Manuel Farfan Carriola was slain on his way home from work. His four bodyguards were also killed, and several police officers were wounded in a gunfight with the assailants. Early blame for the murder of Carriola, a retired general and recently appointed police chief of Nuevo Laredo, is going to the Zetas drug syndicate. This is the second police chief of Nuevo Laredo to be murdered in six years.

STRATFOR just released a report on the murder, noting that the Zetas are very skilled at carrying out car-as-cage style attacks. The Zetas work in league with corrupt police to find out details of routes between an officials house and office, and they are proficient at blocking intersections by riding in taxicabs to track a convoy until it reaches the designated “kill zone” for the ambush.

Washington’s radar right may be too ablaze for Corriola’s murder to show up right now, but it feeds disquiet in DF about the safety of high-ranking public officials.