GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said Friday that drug traffickers ambushed and killed eight police officers in a township west of the capital.
"We have no doubt that it was an organized crime group dedicated to drug trafficking," Perez Molina told reporters during a presentation of three new security squads that include 1,524 police officers and soldiers.
He said police are investigating three drug trafficking groups that operate in Quetzaltenango state to determine who was behind the attack.
The bodies of seven officers were found at the police station in the town of Salcaja, said Cecilio Chacaj of the municipal firefighters department.
Another officer died in the hospital after the Thursday night attack. The victims had multiple gunshot wounds, Chacaj said.
Deputy Interior Minister Eddy Juarez confirmed late Thursday that deputy police inspector Cesar Augusto Garcia was kidnapped in the attack.
