MEXICO CITY, June 18 (UPI) -- A top Mexico City police official was gunned down this week in an ambush outside his home.
Jose Fernando Jimenez Lecona headed up the major crimes unit in the capital, which has been rocked in recent years by a surge of kidnappings and other violent crimes.
The Los Angeles Times said Friday that investigators believe Lecona was targeted in order to derail the investigation of the deaths of two brothers who were kidnapped and then murdered after their family paid a $450,000 ransom.
Lecona was shot late Wednesday by a gunman who was apparently waiting outside the veteran officer's home north of the city.
The rash of kidnappings-for-ransom have become a political issue in Mexico amid public suspicions that corrupt police officers have been working with the kidnap gangs.
