Suspected gang members have shot down a helicopter in a clash with police in the western Mexico state of Sinaloa, killing four people, the state’s governor says.
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The helicopter was carrying out an operation in the Apatzingan region that has hard land access, tweeted Silvano Aureoles, the governor of Michoacan.
Authorities are investigating whether it was gunmen which shot it down.
Officials are hoping to speak with an officer who survived the crash but was intensive care.
The helicopter was on a mission to help arrest the leaders of criminal cells active in the area, which is known for its heavy bouts of gang-related violence.
The helicopter went down near Apatzingan, a city in a region called Tierra Caliente (“Hot Land”), where much of the state’s violence occurs. An officer was injured, Aureoles said. The area has been a hotbed of drug cartel activity and was the scene of fights between the gangs and armed vigilante groups.
Michoacan has bedeviled the Mexican government for years.
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Anti-tank missile Today’s clash followed a series of shootouts over the weekend that left no casualties but led to the seizure of weapons that included the discovery of an anti-tank missile, according to a report by the state prosecutor’s office. In December 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon, deployed an army to the state in an unprecedented move to counter the swelling drug mafia.
