Mexico Disbands Corrupt Veracruz Police Force

Mexican authorities have stamped out corruption in the Veracruz police force by stamping out the Veracruz police force. The port city's police department has been disbanded, and all 800 officers and 300 administrative staff have been fired, the BBC reports. The Mexican navy is taking responsibility for law enforcement in the city of 600,000 people.

The state's governor says the move is part of a national program to reform the police. The fired cops "can join the police again once they have passed the tests of trustworthiness demanded by the national system of public security," he added. Veracruz had been largely free of drug war violence before September, when 35 bodies were found dumped on a main road, sparking battles between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. (More Veracruz stories.)