Los Angeles Times

Mexico's 'Temixco Massacre' left 4 women and 2 children dead, raising questions about police tactics

TEMIXCO, Mexico - The sealed-off house on a residential street here yields little trace of the recent bloody events inside.

Crime scene tape stretched across the imposing black metal gate - and the cop cruiser stationed outside - cannot convey what went catastrophically amiss during a police operation at 238 Francisco I. Madero St.

Shot dead during the botched assault were six family members - four women and two children, including a 3-month-old girl, the latest collateral damage in Mexico's drug wars.

All were kin of the home's principal resident, Jose Antonio Valdez Chapa, whom police here call a smuggling kingpin - an allegation his family denies. He was not injured in the raid.

The Mexican press labeled the Nov. 30 incident the "Temixco Massacre," after this gritty suburb of 115,000 adjacent to the picturesque

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