Grenade attacks shake central Mexico in the wake of arrest

Nov 20, 2009, 18:55 GMT

Mexico City - Successive grenade attacks on police facilities left one person injured and caused damage in central Mexico, in violence that offials said could be linked to the arrest of an alleged drug boss.

'That is a possibility, yes,' Carlos Zamarripa, the attorney general of the state of Guanajuato, admitted Friday.

Cristobal Altamirano Pinon, allegedly the boss of the hit man squadrons of the La Familia drug cartel, had been arrested Thursday.

The grenade attacks followed soon thereafter and into early Friday, in the city of Celaya about 250 kilometres northwest of Mexico City, and in the town of Villagran.

The authorities received anonymous phone calls, claiming responsibility for the attacks in the name of La Familia.

One person was injured by shrapnel but was apparently in stable condition.

The Celaya city government closed schools and cancelled a military parade that had been planned for Friday to celebrate the 99th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

'There is a general and permanent state of alert in all public offices, particularly those in charge of providing security,' Zamarripa said.

The exact number of attacks was not immediately clear, although unofficial reports said there were eight. The police academy in Celaya and a police station in Villagran were reportedly targetted.

Zamarripa said that there were four attacks on police stations, and the Mexican Attorney General's Office said there was a grenade attack on its office in Celaya.

La Familia is a relatively-young but powerful cartel that engages in drug trafficking, kidnappings and other forms of extortion.

In July, following the arrest of one of its mid-level bosses, the cartel carried out several attacks on police that left 19 people dead in the states of Michoacan, La Familia's home base, and Guanajuato.