Narco Blog: Attorney General Official and Wife Kidnapped, Official Tortured and Killed

A Mexican federal prosecutor was found slain in the northwestern state of Sinaloa several days after he and his wife had been kidnapped by gunmen, police spokespersons said. State police found the body of Esau Alfredo Vazquez Navarro, a federal Attorney General’s Office deputy prosecutor based in Sinaloa, early Thursday in the cemetery of the town of Navolato.

The body of the slain official, who was covered by a blanket and had his hands bound, bore numerous gunshot wounds and signs of torture.

The police spokespersons, meanwhile, said officers found 52 spent shell casings from an AK-47 assault rifle at the entrance to the cemetery.

The assailants behind last Saturday’s “levanton” - a common practice by Mexican drug cartels in which one or more people are abducted without any ransom demand and the victims often are found dead several days later - also kidnapped Vazquez Navarro’s wife, although they released the woman unharmed hours later.

Vazquez Navarro, who had worked for the AG’s office for 20 years and was named deputy prosecutor in the Sinaloa town of Ahome two months ago, is believed to have been targeted due to his efforts to investigate and combat crime.

Sinaloa has been one of the states hardest hit by the drug-related violence that has claimed nearly 50,000 lives in Mexico over the past five years.

The dominant crime syndicate in that northwestern state - birthplace of many of Mexico’s drug lords - is the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, but other groups also are fighting for control of territory.

Read in Spanish Here