GUATEMALA CITY ( Drug Traffickers Blamed for Massacre of 8 Cops -Guatemalan President says )

GUATEMALA CITY – Drug traffickers were behind the killings of eight police officers in the western province of Quetzaltenango, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said on Friday.

Three distinct drug outfits operate in the region and the intelligence services are “investigating which one is responsible” for Thursday night’s attack on the police barracks in the town of Salcaja, the president said.

“The agents were surprised while they were resting,” Perez Molina said.

The commander of the police unit in Salcaja, Carlos Augusto Garcia, was taken captive by the assailants. His police radio was found later in a home near the barracks, investigators said.

Wearing ski-masks, the attackers arrived at the police barracks in two vehicles, entered the building and shot the cops – some of whom were in bed – at close range, according to accounts from witnesses and officials. EFE