Authorities in Mexico say organized crime has infiltrated the local police forces in several towns near the border with Arizona.
The military and navy will take over the leadership of police in five towns, including Hermosillo, the capital of Arizona’s neighboring state of Sonora, and the port of Guaymas, Defense Secretary Luis Sandoval said in a news conference on Monday.
Violence in Sonora is on the rise this year. Almost 600 people were killed in Sonora during the first half of the year, a nearly 70 percent jump compared to the same period a year earlier.
Observers of Mexico’s decade-long drug war say the government has put too much of an emphasis on a federal response to the war and not enough on developing local police.
