CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The head of a new local police commander was left in an ice bucket at his police station in the Ciudad Juarez area, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

The city, which lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas, in the state of Chihuahua, has one of the highest homicide rates in Mexico. El Universal reported that Martin Castro Martinez was one of 15 people killed execution-style in 24 hours.

Castro Martinez was abducted Saturday, four days after he became police chief in the suburb of Praxedis G. Guerrero. Five other officers and a civilian man were also snatched.

The police chief's head was left at the police station Sunday afternoon. A message threatened the Sinaloa Cartel with violence from La Linea, the drug cartel dominant in Chihuahua.

The bodies of six young men who appeared to be between the ages of 17 and 20 were found in Santa Isabel. They appeared to have been tortured.

Eight other bodies have been found in the area, El Universal said.

EL PASO, Texas - If Mexican drug violence spills across the U.S. border, Homeland Security officials say they have a contingency plan to assist border areas that includes bringing in the military.

Juarez vigilante group claims it will kill one criminal every 24 hours
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/15/2009 04:05:52 PM MST

A group calling itself the Comando Ciudadano por Juárez, or the Juárez Citizens Command, is claiming it will kill a criminal every 24 hours to bring order to the violent crime-plagued city.
The announcement of the supposed group was the first known case of possible organized vigilantism in Juárez as police and the military have been apparently unable to stop a plague of killings and other crimes.

"Better the death of a bad person than that they continue to contaminating our region," the news release stated in Spanish.

The supposed group issued a news release via e-mail stating it is nonpartisan and funded by businessmen fed up with crime.

46 Murders in Chihuahua in 2009

Mexico, Jan 21 (Prensa Latina) The number of violent deaths has now reached 46 in the Mexican northern state of Chihuahua in the 20 first days of the year, according to a television report today from Juarez City.


Last minute press releases indicate that in that region were found 12 bodies, among them two couples and a pair of ministerial policemen, meanwhile they reported other violent deaths in the districts of Durango, Jalisco, Sonora y Sinaloa.

The news sustain that the wave of violence continues at the same rhythm as in 2008, despite the increasing operations of the police forces and the army to stop drug trafficking and organized crime.

In 2008, more than 5600 persons died in Mexico in a violent manner, mainly in six states, most of them North of the country.

According to official sources, in the clash between the police and the gangs, died 94 soldiers and around 500 policemen were wounded. Of the total executed, more than 130 were women.