Missing guns and AWOL traffic cops are among the concerns identified by the army after its inspection of Acapulco’s municipal police force.

The National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) discovered that police are short 342 of 1,771 assigned firearms after federal and state security forces disarmed the police last week because of suspected infiltration by organized crime.

The spokesman for the state security agency Guerrero Coordination Group told a press conference that Sedena had given Acapulco Mayor Evodio Velázquez Aguirre a Monday deadline to explain the absence of the firearms.

However, as of today Velázquez is no longer mayor: his three-year term ended yesterday when he was replaced by Adela Román Ocampo.

The investigation into the Acapulco police department also found that close to half the port city’s traffic police never show up for work despite receiving a paycheck every two weeks.

The state Attorney General’s office is now attempting to locate the 202 missing officers.

Other irregularities that only 674 of the municipality’s 1,309 police officers have been certified and evaluated despite claims to the contrary by outgoing mayor Velázquez.

The police chief himself was not certified. The Guerrero Coordination Group said it had advised the mayor twice that Max Lorenzo Sedano had failed the evaluation test, but nothing came of it. Sedano resigned his post last week.

Acapulco has long held the title of the most violent city in Mexico as organized crime gangs fight over control of the city, causing some 700 homicides per year.

Source: El Universal (sp)