The FINANCIAL — According to RIA Novosti, Mexican police has found the body of a journalist who was apparently abducted by a drug cartel in December last year, the country's public security ministry said in a statement on January 17.
"The body, with hands bound, was found in a plastic bag near the Mexican city of Santa Blanca in the [northwestern] state of Sinaloa," the statement reads.
The 40-year-old reporter of the Linea Directa radio station, Jose Luis Romero, was kidnapped by a group of armed men from a restaurant in the city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, on December 30. The city's chief investigator was shot dead hours after he launched a probe into the abduction.
The Efe radio station reported that the journalist was killed shortly after the abduction, as the body was badly decomposed. Police say he was probably shot.
The body was found on Saturday, shortly after the discovery of a cardboard plate that indicated his supposed whereabouts.
Romero is third journalist killed in the country in the past three weeks.
At least 24 journalists were killed in the Central American state beginning from 2006. Last year 13 journalists were killed due to their professional activity.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a fight against drug trafficking in the country after taking power in 2006. Some 45,000 servicemen have been involved in anti-drug operations at the border between Mexico and the U.S.
According to the Excelsior paper, a total of 189 people have been killed in the country by drug mafia since the start in the year. More than 15,000 people have been killed in drug-related clashes in Mexico since Calderon came to power.
Sinaloa is home to a drug cartel led by Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
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