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Michoacán – Mexican President Felipe Calderón has sent more than 5,000 soldiers and police officers to the western province of Michoacán to quell a recent surge in drug-related violence.
The troop deployment is one of the biggest in the three-year drug war. Heavily armed security forces have set up roadblocks on major motorways and are patrolling coastal waters and air space.
The surge comes after a local drug cartel tortured and killed 12 federal agents in retaliation for the capture of a high-ranking member of the La Familia cartel.
Ten police officers have since been arrested on suspicion of cooperating with the drug cartel in the murders. Some 12,800 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Calderón took office in 2006.
Radio Netherlands / Expatica