Mexican security forces arrested 16 municipal police officers accused of protecting drug gang hitmen who massacred dozens of people near the US border

Mexican security forces arrested 16 municipal police officers accused of protecting drug gang hitmen who massacred dozens of people near the US border, the country’s attorney-general said.
Soldiers have uncovered at least 116 corpses since last week in graves in the town of San Fernando near Texas, in one of the most gruesome finds so far in Mexico’s drug war.
Attorney-General Marisela Morales said the brutal Zetas drug cartel was behind the atrocity and offered rewards of up to 15mn pesos ($1.2mn) for help tracking down several of the gang’s local leaders.
“The government promises ... to get to the bottom of these regrettable and deplorable events and put an end to police corruption,” Morales told reporters, reading from a statement.
Morales said 17 suspected gang members who participated in the killings have been arrested so far. She declined to give more details about any possible motives for the massacre or the identities of the victims.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to fight the drug gangs in 2006, worrying Washington and some investors and tarnishing Mexico’s international image as a top tourist destination.