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Mexican Federal Police Officers Used Patrol Cars To Carry Out Kidnappings

Thirteen federal police officers recently arrested in Mexico on kidnapping and murder charges used their patrol cars to carry out the crimes, the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office said Wednesday.

The 13 were part of a group of 18 that were arrested in the state of Guerrero. They are charged with at least seven murders and four kidnappings. The arrests may hurt the image of President Enrique Peña Nieto's public security policies. Since he took office, 94 federal police have been charged with murder, kidnapping, extortion and robbery.

This past March, the Mexican justice department said94 percentof its federal police were certified as credible enough to serve after passing background and toxicology tests, so it's not clear whether those 94 officers charged this year began their criminal careers before they entered the force or after.

Further damaging the country's image is a report out this week showing the vast amount of kidnappings that have gone unreported in the country. The country's census bureau tallied more than105,000 kidnappings in 2012 alone. But only 1,317 were actually reported. Mexico's confidence in its police seems to still be an issue for the country.

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Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco (Tucson) has reported along the Southwest border for the past decade, most of that in Arizona and Sonora. Before joining the Fronteras Desk, he produced stories in the field for CNN Madrid, the BBC, 60 Minutes Australia, and the CBC. His work now focuses on transnational trafficking syndicates, immigration, federal law enforcement and those weird, wild stories that make the U.S.-Mexico border such an inherently fascinating region. He is a contributing author on Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime and an occasional writer at High Country News. In his spare time, he works with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, assisting in the ongoing investigations of journalist killings in Mexico.