On Thursday afternoon, the bullet-riddled body of Mayor Estanislao García was discovered, along with his burned-out truck. Garcia had been mayor of Palomas, Mexico for nearly two years, and is only the latest of several Mexican officials to be gunned down by the drug cartels. Palomas is just across the border from Columbus, NM.

Deming, New Mexico Mayor Andres Silva told the El Paso Times: "It's just really sad. This hits home. We're just shocked right now.”

Palomas is a popular location for illegal crossings into the U.S. It has also become a war zone in the ongoing battle between Mexico’s drug cartels.

In 2008, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced that they have had several encounters in Palomas with the paramilitary group known as the Zetas, who work for the Gulf Cartel.

In addition to dozens of murders occurring last year in the small town of Palomas, two police officers were kidnapped and murdered, their charred remains were later found at a nearby ranch. Facing an imminent threat, the police chief quit and sought refuge in the U.S.

In July 2009, the mayor of Namiquipa, Mexico was murdered by drug traffickers.

In February 2009, two members of the town council of Guadalupe were gunned down.

In July 2008, Villa Ahumada Police Chief Jesus Blanco Cano was shot to death after only one day on the job. The town had been without a police chief since May after a band of 70 gunmen raided the town and murdered the previous chief, along with two of his officers. After the attack, the rest of the town´s 20-officer police force resigned.

On June 4, 2008, husband and wife police officers Gabriel Padilla Perez and Claudia Tovar Carreon were shot to death in front of their Juarez home, as they left for work. The couple left behind two small children. A day earlier, a 25-year-old pregnant woman was killed outside a shopping mall a few miles away, as a shootout broke-out between rival gang members.

In May 2008, the chief of Mexico´s federal police force was assassinated entering his home in Mexico City. Commander Edgar Millan Gomez and his bodyguards were gunned down by several men in an ambush-style attack. He was shot nine times and died a short time later.

Since January 1, 2008, there have been 3,480 murders in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, TX.

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