Mexico City, Oct 29 (EFE) Eight former police officers were sentenced to 40 years in prison for a series of kidnappings in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, the state attorney general’s office said.
The three members of the gang known as Los Perros (The Dogs) received 38-year sentences, the AG office said Wednesday.

Five of the corrupt cops worked with the municipal police department in Zamora, while the other three were part of the force in Jacona.

Michoacan is the main battleground for Mexico’s powerful drug cartels pitted against one another and the security forces and has claimed about 15,000 lives during the past three years.

The illegal drug trade in the state is dominated by La Familia Michoacana, a criminal organisation that also engages in kidnapping, extortion and trafficking.

A significant number of politicians, officials and law enforcement personnel in Michoacan have been arrested on charges of having links with La Familia.