Hundreds of police, soldiers raid illegal logging camps on southern edge of Mexico City

Hundreds of police and soldiers have raided illegal logging camps on the southern edge of Mexico City and seized four illegal sawmills

Hundreds of police and soldiers raided illegal logging camps on the southern edge of Mexico City Wednesday and seized four illegal sawmills, sparking the anger of local residents.

Some residents of the mountain towns blocked highways leading out of Mexico City with burning tires to demand the release of people allegedly detained in the raid, but it was unclear if those were people detained by loggers or police.

Prosecutors in the neighboring state of Morelos did not mention any arrests in the raid, which involved at least 300 officers of the state police, the National Guard and the army.

Prosecutors said Wednesday the raid targeted logging and sawmills in the pine forests of the township of Huitzilac.

The burnt-out chassis of four trucks — some still loaded with logs — stood on the edge of a road leading into Huitzilac. It appears the trucks belonged to an environmental office of the Mexico City government, and they had been set afire by a Huitzilac resident angered by the anti-logging raid.

Authorities seized a large quantity of logs, saws, trucks and stolen vehicles in the raid that were apparently used to distribute the wood.

Huitzilac is a largely lawless community located in the mountains that separate Mexico City and Cuernavaca, in Morelos state, where kidnap gangs, loggers and other criminals have taken up residence in the past.

While the greater Mexico City metropolitan area is home to more than 20 million people, the southern and western edges of the mountain-ringed city are home to impressive pine and fir forests that are threatened by urban sprawl and illegal logging.