++Mexico Drug War
AP-APTN-2330: ++Mexico Drug War
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
STORY:++Mexico Drug War- NEW +4:3 Pancho Villa relative is Mexico's newest tough police officer
LENGTH: 02:30
FIRST RUN: 2330
RESTRICTIONS: Part No Access Mexico
TYPE: Spanish/Nat
SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/TV Azteca
STORY NUMBER: 687239
DATELINE: Cancun - 4 May 2011/File
LENGTH: 02:30
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
TV Azteca - NO ACCESS MEXICO
SHOTLIST
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Quintana Roo, Mexico - 3 April, 2011
1. Various of Retired Mexican Army general Gen Carlos Bibiano Villa Castillo walking accompanied by other people
2. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Retired General Carlos Bibiano Villa, Quintana Roo State Police Chief:
"Of 1700 (policemen), 60 percent are incapable of service. Fat bellies, high sugar levels, flat feet, what kind of police force do I have? So it's going to be a long way to train and indoctrinate my people to turn them into combatants."
3. Cut away to hands
4. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Retired General Carlos Bibiano Villa, Quintana Roo State Police Chief
"In terms of organised crime, I know how they operate. Because their main targets are Cancun, Chetumal, Playa del Carmen. It is a matter of dealing with these places to bring down crime, and you can be sure we will bring it down."
5. Cut away Bibiano talking
6. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Retired General Carlos Bibiano Villa, Quintana Roo State Police Chief:
"What we know is that they killed a young man that almost certainly was one of them, that this man had stolen 3 or 4 cheques, so they got him and killed him and cut him up as an example. And they took the opportunity to send him to me and say 'you are next, Villa.' Damn good they sent me a warning, if they are warning me, I'll be ready. I just want to make clear, I sleep in my bed with my rifle and pistol, and at night I keep on caressing it as if it were a bear."
7. General Villa leaving restaurant
TV Azteca - No Access Mexico
Quintana Roo - Date Not Known
++4:3
8. Wide shot of police ribbon blocking access where bodies were found
9. Police behind trees were bodies were found
10. Various of Police walking out of security perimeter
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Cancun, Mexico - August 2007
++NIGHT SHOTS++
++4:3
11. FILE: Various of police officers at crime scene
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Cancun, Mexico - July 2007
++NIGHT SHOTS++
++4:3
FILE:
12. Wide of security and perimeter ribbon
13. Zoom into crime scene with officials working under lights
14. Wide of security and perimeter ribbon
15. Mid rear of security official with rifle
16. Close of victim
STORYLINE
The great nephew of Mexico's great revolutionary leader Pancho Villa has been placed in charge of public security in the troubled state of Quintana Roo.
Villa started his job last month as police chief in the Caribbean coast state and has already been threatened by Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, the Zetas.
A note that read "This is a little gift for you" was recently left on a dismembered body dumped near the resort city of Cancun. It threatened, "You're next, Villa."
It was no idle threat.
Two years ago, retired General Mauro Enrique Tello was kidnapped, tortured and killed shortly after he was hired as a security adviser to root out corruption in Cancun.
But 62-year-old Villa, who shares the strong features of his famous relative, is undeterred.
"Damn good that they sent me a warning," Villa told The Associated Press. "If they are warning me, I'll be ready."
Such bravado has been a trademark for Villa as he joins the struggle to contain Mexico's escalating drug wars.
He has suggested publicly that he subscribes to a shoot-first, ask-questions-later style of policing.
He also says he is aware of how organised crime operates and believes it is a matter of targeted police work.
"Their main targets are Cancun, Chetumal, Playa del Carmen. It is a matter of dealing with these places to bring down crime," he said.
A father of three, Villa sleeps with a rifle and a .44 calibre pistol he calls "my little black one."
A telecommunications and intelligence expert during his 43 years in the military, he rose to the rank of general and now calls the army his father, and the nation his mother.
Villa knows he has a lot of work to do to make his police force effective.
"Fat bellies, high sugar levels, flat feet, what kind of police force do I have?" he pondered.
Villa represents a new mould of top cop in a country where all levels of law enforcement - even federal prosecutors - have been co-opted by drug cartels.
According to Mexico's Institute for Security and Democracy, 17 of Mexico's 32 states have retired military officers heading their departments of public security.
Two years ago, the newspaper Reforma said there were only six.
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APEX 05-04-11 2043EDT