1,500 Vigilantes Seize Mexican Town, Arrest Police Officers

Roughly 1,500 vigilantes have seized the Mexican town of Tierra Colorado, arresting police officers and searching homes after one of the group's leaders was killed Monday. 

Describing themselves as "community police," the band of vigilantes have been conducting mass traffic stops in the town of about 20,000 people, just 40 miles from the tourist haven of Acapulco, according to Fox News. About 2,000 citizens are believed to have fled the town since the vigilantes arrived. The group arrested 12 police officers as well as the former director of public security for the city at improvised check points established on the highway. The vigilantes, which are part of regional umbrella group Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero State, accuse the ex-director of participating in the murder of one its leaders in conjunction with local organized crime and then disposing of his body in a close by town.

"We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander," said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group, according to The Daily Mail.

The group, which operates in the Mexican state of Guerrero, claims to have since handed the former security director over to state authorities. Law enforcement has agreed to conduct an investigation into the group's allegations.

The vigilantes announced they had collected several "high-powered rifles" from the ex-security director's car, and have been reportedly seen brandishing assault rifles in the streets as they search residents' homes, seizing drugs from some properties.

Groups like the Tierra Colorado vigilantes are tolerated by Mexican police because of the pervasive nature of corruption and organized crime in the country, though there is growing concern over possible human rights violations involved with their activity. 

Mexico has constantly wrestled with the seemingly ever-increasing problem of drug violence in recent years. Since Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto made a vow to fight drug violence in 2007, about 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, according to The Post. Statistics from the group Reforma Ejecutometro estimate that over 12,000 people were killed in drug-related murders in 2011 alone, the most recent available year for data, according to Fox News Latino. 

While drug violence is on the rise in Mexico, experts in the country say the majority of drug violence is not aimed at tourists.