Drug Gang Videos Accuse Police of Kidnappings

(Acapulco, SA 21 October) In a report published by El Sol de Acapulco, three short videos were uploaded on Tuesday night on YouTube, in which it was alleged that the disappearance in Acapulco on September 30 of the twenty men from Michoacán was carried out by corrupt police officials. The videos declare that the incident was part of a turf dispute between warring drug gangs. The authors, presumably part of the Leyva group known as “El H,” indicated that they had allied themselves with the “Zetas” to rid Acapulco of two other gangs, “La Barbie” and the organization headed by Edgar Valdés Villareal.

In one of the videos, a man was shown with his hands tied behind him, seated on the ground, and identified as a member of the city police force assigned to Zapata, and a member of the “La Barbie” cartel. In the videos, heavily armed men make a three-minute announcement in which they name several police commanders and officers from the Acapulco force and the investigative police of the Ministry of Justice. The videos claim that these police officials were part of the “La Barbie” group and that they carried out the kidnappings on September 30.

The videos remained available for about six hours before YouTube removed them for violating the site’s content rules. The uploads coincided with an announcement by David Augusto Sotelo Rosas, a government prosecuting attorney, that more details of the official investigation would be revealed by today, October 21.