Mexican security forces arrested 27 mayors and other officials during an operation targeting politicians in the country's brutal drug war, officials
said.
The federal attorney general's office said the government officials, including 10 mayors, were being investigated for alleged ties to drug traffickers
and other organized crime syndicates that control sections of Michoacan, home state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the Los Angeles Times
reported Wednesday.
Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy confirmed the arrests and said he had no advance warning of Tuesday's sweep.
Among those arrested was a key adviser to Godoy, a judge and top regional public security officials, the attorney general's office said. Most were
taken to Mexico City for questioning.
Michoacan is the base for the drug-trafficking organization known as La Familia, the Times said. "Everything is so corrupt here, from top to bottom,
the (federal) government had to show it was doing something," Reginaldo Sandoval, president of the state branch of the Labor Party, told the Times.
In the last year, La Familia established itself in 20 to 30 cities and towns across the United States, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said
Tuesday.
