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Top Mexican Drug Fighter Murdered on First Day

Official tortured, shot 11 times within 24 hours

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 5, 2009 4:20 AM CST

(Newser) – A retired army general appointed as Mexico's new top drug-fighting official spent his first day on the job being tortured and murdered, CNN reports. The corpses of the general, his aide and his driver were found in a pickup truck on a road near Cancun. The general's body showed signs of extensive torture and he had been shot 11 times.

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Mexican soldiers stand in front of a forensic lab where three bodies are held in Cancun. The corpses of a retired brigadier general and two other men were found Tuesday in a vehicle on a highway. ( AP Photo/Israel Leal)

A truck holding the bullet-riddled body of Mexico's new top drug fighter sits off a highway near Cancun. (AP Photo/ Quintana Roo State Attorney General's Office)

A soldier guards a checkpoint on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico. Mexico's drug war has brought a surge in violence, with more than 5,300 gang killings reported last year. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

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The general was the most mistreated. He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken. - Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo

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Top Mexican Drug Fighter Murdered on First Day