Police Slain at Mexico City Airport

MEXICO CITY—Gunmen with suspected ties to a drug cartel, wearing police uniforms, opened fire and killed three federal police officers at a food court in Mexico City's bustling international airport Monday morning, sending panicked passengers and bystanders to duck for cover under tabletops, according to officials and witnesses.

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Federal police stand guard outside Benito Juárez International Airport near an entrance to the food-court area after the shooting.

Heavy Traffic

• Benito Juárez International Airport ranked 53rd in the world in passenger traffic, with 26.4 million people moving through its two terminals in 2011.
• 8.9 million passengers, or a third of the total last year, were international travelers.
• The airport is Latin America's second busiest after Brazil's Guarulhos International Airport, which had 30.4 million passengers last year.
• Terminal 2 opened in 2007 and serves Aeromexico, Aeromar, Delta, LAN and COPA.

Sources: Airports Council International, Mexico City International Airport

The grisly incident was the first of its kind at the airport, which is usually packed with locals and foreign tourists. It was also a rare reminder for residents of the relatively safe capital—and less than a week before the country's presidential elections—of the kinds of killings that happen every day across the country in turf wars between drug gangs that have killed at least 55,000 people in the past six years.

There were different versions of what happened at Terminal 2 of the Benito Juárez International Airport, which accommodates 26.4 million passengers a year and where flights from airlines such as Delta and Aeromexico land daily.

In a statement late Monday, the Public Security Ministry said the shootings were a result of an investigation into corrupt government officials "from diverse local and federal jurisdictions assigned to the Mexico City International Airport and presumably involved in the traffic of drugs in the airport terminal." It said that two corrupt federal police officers, on being confronted Monday morning, opened fired and killed the three federal police officers involved in an anti-drug operation. The ministry said that it had identified the two corrupt federal police officers and had sent federal police units to track them down.

Several witnesses described what appeared to be a gangland-type hit on the police. One witness told Mexico's Televisa network that two men wearing police uniforms were shooting point-blank at another victim, also wearing a police uniform.

"We were having a soda when we heard a shot. Then three more. We turned and there was a guy in uniform on the floor. And these two other uniformed men were shooting directly at him," said the woman, who didn't want her identity revealed by the network for fear of retaliation.

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The witness said about 30 people were trapped in the food court, and hid under tables during the shooting. She said the frightened bystanders were too scared to move for about 20 minutes after the shooting, and watched as one of the wounded policemen went into convulsions and died on the floor.

In the past, authorities have seized police uniforms during raids on drug cartel safe houses, suggesting the gang members sometimes dress as police to avoid detection.

At the same time, however, police units at times have engaged in shootouts among themselves during antidrug operations, suggesting factions of police have been corrupted by drug gangs.

Airport officials issued a statement saying the airport was operating normally after what it described as "an incident" in a public area.

Mexico City's airport is prized turf for drug traffickers as an entry point into the country for cocaine from South America. In the past, officers assigned to the airport have been killed outside the facility for allegedly failing to protect drug shipments after being paid to do so.

Arturo Yanez, an academic who consults for police departments and writes commentary on the drug fight, said details of the shootings suggests a possible settling of accounts among "mafias" fighting for control over the lucrative trafficking operations at the airport with the protection of corrupt federal police.

"The airport is the destination for of all kinds of legal and illegal goods, and is a tightly controlled operation, mostly by bad people," Mr. Yanez said in an interview. "What happens in the airport stays in the airport."

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A forensic team inspects a body at Mexico City's International Airport Monday.

Public killings and shootouts are common in much of Mexico, especially in the north, but are relatively rare in Mexico City. The gunmen were careful to carry out the attack outside the security area and didn't fire at bystanders, Mr. Yanez said, suggesting that the incident was most likely to "mark their territory."

The federal security ministry said that it seized 198 pounds of cocaine in the capital's international airport last year, and had confiscated another 40 pounds of the drug so far this year.

President Felipe Calderón has touted the building of the federal police as in important step in taking on organized crime. The force has tried to gain a reputation as honest and efficient by recruiting college graduates and paying better.

The shootings were not seen as affecting the outcome Sunday's election for president and a new Congress, since the ruling National Action Party candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota, is already in third place in recent presidential polls, and front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party has vowed to keep up the current government's fight against drug cartels, but to limit its ripple effects on average Mexicans.

While many Mexicans view the force as much more honest than local police, the federal force has also had its share of troubles. About 3,200 members of the force—about 10% of the total—were fired in 2010 in a mass purge related to poor performance or suspected corruption.

Write to Laurence Iliff at laurence.iliff@dowjones.com