Cananea's mayor Luis Carlos Cha Flores, struck back a little at Gov. Eduardo Bours during a press conference this afternoon at city hall.
But he's also adding a little to the confusion about how many cops are left in town.
Friday, Bours told
El Imparcial newspaper that the five dead officers were involved with local drug trafficking in Cananea.
He slammed them further, saying the Cananea police chief was a hand-picked successor to Ramon Tacho, the Agua Prieta police chief gunned down Feb. 26. Tacho was chief in Cananea until Cha Flores took office last fall.
"There's a lot of declarations that have been said," said Cha Flores. "If they have to investigate my police, then please do so. But they also need to investigate the state and federal police working in this city," he said.
He's got a good point there; the line between cop and thug is increasingly blurring in Sonora these days.
American law enforcement sources have told me that Tacho actually approached the Douglas Police Department with information he wanted to give the FBI about narco-traffickers working in Agua Prieta. The Feds never got back to him and he died shortly after.
Late Thursday night, Pedro Emigdio Cordova Herrera, a State Investigative Police commander from Cd. Obregón died after gunmen shot him in the face and stomach. It was the second hit on Cordova who was shot in the back in Obregon last October.
He worked for the Enriquez Parra brothers who trafficked dope into Arizona for the Sinaloa Federation.
Finally, the convoy from Tuesday night's attack on Cananea traveled all the way from Caborca. It had to drive right past a Mexican Customs checkpoint on Highway 2 west of Cuitaca. No official there claimed to have seen them when I stopped by to ask about that today.
The governor should also be concerned about the Hermosillo Police Department.
An Hermosillo police officer was arrested on his way to Cananea Tuesday night. He told officers he was simply traveling up the road but text messages from the gunmen were found on his cellphone.
Finally, I would add that the governor never said anything about the state police who've been gunned down in Hermosillo this year. Both Raul Bojorquez and Hector Castelo were murdered in Hermosillo. I've never heard any public criticism about them.
Still, Mayor Cha Flores declined to explain the unofficial number of resignations of his police officers this morning.
He said 15 police officers have resigned since Tuesday's mass kidnapping of Cananea cops.
"That leaves us 32 police officers to watch over this city," he said.
But officials at the police department said eight more resigned this morning.
The police chief never showed up for work Friday morning.