ACAPULCO, Mexico—Gunmen disguised as soldiers launched brazen attacks on police stations and killed seven people on Tuesday in the violent Mexican resort of Acapulco, defying a military crackdown against drug gangs.
The state prosecutor's office said men dressed in khaki uniforms and wearing red berets bluffed their way into two stations saying they were soldiers visiting to check police weapons.
The group, accompanied by men filming the attacks, opened fire with assault rifles at one station, killing three policemen.
The hitmen also attacked another station, stripped several agents of their guns and started shooting, killing a secretary, two police officers and a public prosecutor.
"They pretended to check police guns. That's how they disarmed the guys and once they were disarmed, took their lives," a spokesman at the prosecutor's office said.
Police later found vehicles and arms they said were used in the shootings.
Acapulco shot to fame in the 1950s as a hip Pacific hangout for Hollywood stars like swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn.
Once a small fishing village, it is now a major city suffering a grisly crime wave. Last weekend, a man's chopped-up body was discovered dumped in plastic garbage bags in the city.
Acapulco's mayor, who has received frequent death threats from drug gangs, sounded desperate.
"I don't want any more violence, I don't want us to go through this any more," he told Mexican radio.
Long forgotten by the A-list, the resort is still popular with U.S. "spring break" student vacationers and Mexican tourists.
President Felipe Calderon called an emergency meeting with his security cabinet to discuss the latest attacks.
Calderon, who took office on December 1, has sent thousands of troops to violent regions of Mexico to tackle drug gangs who killed 2,000 people in a feud last year.
Two main groups, one from northwestern Mexico and the other from the northeast, are fighting for control of trading routes.
Suspected drug gang hitmen shot dead a senior policeman on Tuesday in the northwestern city of Culiacan, regarded as the territory of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, head of one of the two rival gangs.
Police also hit back at the cartels, capturing alleged major financial operator and money launderer Alejandro Rodriguez Meza in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, along with a host of associates, a stash of U.S. dollars and several vehicles.
As part of the government clampdown, soldiers have been investigating local police forces for connections with the cartels. In the rowdy border city of Tijuana, just south of San Diego the army confiscated all the city police's guns.
In January, almost 8,000 troops and federal police were sent to the region around Acapulco to clamp down on rival gangs at war for control of lucrative drug plantations and smuggling routes.
Despite the crackdown, there were 190 drug gang-related deaths in Mexico in January, just a handful less than a year ago.
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