Word: coachapa
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...holiday also known as the Day of the Dead. As part of the Mexican government's efforts to crack down on drug smugglers, 17 policemen made a sweep of the mountainous "bandit country" in the state of Veracruz, 300 miles southeast of Mexico City. Nearing the banks of the Coachapa River in predawn darkness, the government force surprised a gang of some 50 drug traffickers in the act of loading 1,300 lbs. of marijuana onto a boat. The police had hardly shouted a warning when the smugglers opened fire...
...agents repelled the first attack but were ambushed again on the road to the town of Acayucán and eventually used up their ammunition. A day later the bodies of the 17 officers were discovered lying along the banks of the Coachapa River by a helicopter pilot. Some had been tortured. Most had been executed with a bullet in the head. Observed Vicente López Estrada, head of the Veracruz state judicial police: "The drug traffickers are well armed...
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