On Saturday, a police officer was killed and three others wounded when a car bomb went off near the town of Tula, Hidalgo, which is about 50 miles north of Mexico City. Police believe the Zetas Cartel was responsible for the attack.
Police received an anonymous phone call claiming that a body was inside the car. The bomb detonated when they opened he trunk.Police Commander Victor Pena died from his injuries at a local hospital.
According to Mayor Rodolfo Paredes, there was no body found in the car.
Police found a written message near the car, and believe the bombing was in retaliation for a recent shootout in which police officers killed two Zetas.
Last summer there was a spate of car bombings, which began in Juarez. While the attacks were part of the ongoing Mexican drug war which, so far, has claimed more than 34,000 lives, it was the first time this tactic was used by the cartels.
Many were remotely detonated by cell phones, a carbon copy of the type of bombings so often seen in the Middle East.
On July 6, 2010, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah reported that Mexican authorities arrested a Mexican national who was working for Hezbollah, and that the Islamic terrorist group has been recruiting Mexicans with ties to Lebanon to set up terror cells along the border.
There is evidence to suggest that the Mexican drug cartels and Hezbollah are now working together, as U.S. prisons are starting to see tattoos on cartel operatives showing alignment to the terrorist organization.
On June 23, 2010, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, asking that her agency form a task force to investigate the possible connection between the cartels and Hezbollah.
The mutual benefits to a relationship between the cartels and Hezbollah are obvious. The Islamic terrorists could train cartel hit men in terror tactics, in exchange for escorting them into the U.S., along established smuggling routes.
