4 killed in police helicopter crash in Mexico

A criminal gang used a high-caliber rifle to bring down a helicopter in southern Mexico, said the country’s national security commissioner, Renato Sales.

“The helicopter was patrolling in an area inaccessible by land”, Michoacan state Gov. Silvano Aureoles said via Twitter late Tuesday.

Gangsters shot down a helicopter in Mexico.

Aureoles initially said Tuesday that the helicopter was shot down, but later said the cause was under investigation.

Michoacan has always been a flash point in Mexico’s drug war, and battles between criminals and security forces are a common occurrence.

Last year, members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which operates in Michoacan and in the neighboring state of Jalisco, shot down an army helicopter, killing six soldiers.

“We will not step back in the fight against crime”.

The operation was focused on apprehending leaders of criminal cells, CNN quoted the governor as saying.

The cartel was weakened as authorities deployed troops and arrested or killed its top leaders, but smaller criminal groups have since emerged.

Murders fell nationwide in the first two years of Pena Nieto’s presidency but they rose again last year. The mayor of the town of Alvaro Obregon and four local police officers were detained in connection with the crime.

The state has bedevilled the Mexican government for years.