5 people killed in troubled Mexico state

The bullet-riddled bodies of five people, including two police officers, were discovered Thursday in a western Mexico state where troops were deployed in May to tame drug-related violence, officials said. The bodies were found in the Michoacan state village of Catalina, which is part of the municipality of Buenavista Tomatlan, where residents formed vigilante groups to counter the Knights Templar drug cartel. Salvador Coit, director of the state prosecutor's investigative service, told AFP investigators were sent to Catalina where the "bloody event was confirmed." A source from the state prosecutor's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that two of the victims are local police officers from the town of Apatzingan. The federal government deployed thousands of troops in May after towns formed self-defense groups, saying they had to take up arms because local authorities were doing nothing to stop the Knights Templar. The government indicated recently that calm was slowly returning to Michoacan. But Buenavista Tomatlan mayor Luis Torres told AFP he has not been able to return to his office because it was taken over by armed civilians. "The lack of security still exists," Torres said. Michoacan was the first state to see troops deployed when then president Felipe Calderon decided to use the military to combat drug trafficking across the country in 2006. Since then, some 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico.