Shining Path rebels working with narco-traffickers killed a police officer and wounded 11 others who were part of an anti-drug patrol in the coca-producing Apurimac River valley, a police chief said Monday, according to AP. A female officer, 21, died from a bullet in the head Sunday and the others were wounded as they sought refuge from the ambush in a ravine, General Miguel Hidalgo, chief of Peru's anti-drug police, told Canal 7 news program. Such attacks on police have occurred frequently since an armed group bearing hand grenades and submachine guns stormed a police station near a drug-trafficking route in Apurimac in November, some 360 kilometers southeast of Lima, killing a police lieutenant and wounding three officers. Authorities attribute the growing frequency of such attacks on police in coca-producing zones to an alliance between drug-traffickers and the remnants of Peru's deadly Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group, which is financing a resurgence by protecting drug smugglers who use backpacks and mules to carry cocaine out of the region.
