A police chief in Mexico kills himself as the military tries to arrest him in a corruption investigation

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The police chief of a small town in central Mexico took his own life Friday as the military closed in to arrest him as part of an anti-corruption crackdown that also arrested other top police chiefs and the mayor of another city.

The raids took place in two rural towns in the State of Mexico, west of Mexico City, and in two densely populated areas on the outskirts of the country’s capital.

Federal prosecutors say the police chief of one of the rural towns of Texcaltitlan killed himself with his own weapon as the Marines, National Guard and soldiers were trapped trying to arrest him on undisclosed charges.

The military also arrested the mayor of the nearby town of Amanalco “on various charges,” the town’s police chief and another local official, and the police chief of the southern town of Tejupilco.

The area around the two cities has long been controlled by the violent La Familia Michoacana gang, which deals in drugs, kidnapping and extortion.

While other attacks targeted rural areas, authorities also arrested an assistant police chief in Naucalpan, a town of 775,000 residents on the northwestern outskirts of Mexico City.

Later, they announced the arrest of the chief of police in the area of ​​Ixtapaluca, east of Mexico City, which has a population of about 370,000.

Although federal prosecutors did not specify the charges against the officials, local media reported that they were suspected of collaborating with gangs.

Gangs and drug cartels have long infiltrated, intimidated or bribed local officials to work for them, often to the point of cutting municipal budgets or using local police to warn or defend against state attacks. Sometimes, the police simply benefit from the freedom of the drug trade.