Drug Suspects Kill Three Police in Mexico City’s Airport

Drug Suspects Kill Three Police in Mexico City’s Airport

Three federal police officers died in a firefight in Mexico City’s international airport after they tried to detain drug trafficking suspects, authorities said.

The shootout took place this morning near the food court of airport Terminal 2, according to an e-mailed statement from the federal police. Two of the officers were killed at the scene, while the third died of his wounds in a hospital.

Assailants with suspected links to drug traffickers opened fire after the police officers surrounded them, the Public Security Ministry said in a separate statement. Witnesses told Milenio TV that the assailants were dressed in police uniforms themselves. The Public Security Ministry didn’t say how many people were involved in the attack.

More than 47,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon ordered troops to fight organized crime groups in December 2006. The shootout caused panic among morning passengers, although no flights were canceled or delayed.

“This situation is not affecting in any way the airport’s operations or services,” the Transportation Ministry said in a statement. “Commuters can arrive as usual to the airport.”

Mexico City’s airport is a major transit point for South American cocaine being smuggled into the U.S. The federal police seized more than 200 kilograms of the narcotic at the airport so far this year, compared with 90 kilograms last year, the Public Security Ministry said.

The assailants may have been members themselves of the federal police force, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported, citing officials within the police department it didn’t identify.


Source

There is something I do not get: it is widely reported that organized crime is pretty much all over the airports and that change houses are washing money, that drugs and people are coming and going through the airports pretty freely so why have these shoot outs in the airports? Since the authorities know that it is going on, why not follow the suspects out of the airports and arrest them or have a shootout away from populated areas?
I know there is a lot of grand standing but a shootout in a food court in an airport is not doing a lot for tourism..... this is ridiculous.

There seems to be quite a bit of info lying below the surface on this incident:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=es&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.informador.com.mx/primera/2012/385682/6/piden-a-eu-datos-de-posibles-nexos-de-narcotrafico-en-aicm.htm&usg=ALkJrhhLK3ngBebDRToK_zpX7xEpuQsyXQ