Armed vigilantes have taken control of the Guerrero town of Tierra Colorado, which sits on a highway connecting Acapulco and Mexico City, and have arrested 12 police officers and the town's former director of public security, according to media reports.

The 1,500 vigilantes believe the former director of public security has information regarding the death of the "community police" leader, 28-year-old Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal.

Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the group, is quoted saying, "We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander." Valerio's group went on to search multiple homes in the town and seized drugs from several of them.

Valerio accused the former director of public security of colluding with organized crime lords in Mexico to assassinate Carbajal and dump his body. The vigilantes said they stole several high-powered rifles from his car. Since being kidnapped, the security director was turned over to prosecutors who agreed to look into his alleged criminal dealings.

These vigilante groups have become more and more common in Mexico, where drug cartels and criminal organizations often terrorize communities. According to some reports, though, there are suspicions that many of these "self-defense" groups engage in much of the behavior they claim to be against. Despite these rumblings, local officials tend to let the vigilante groups do their business because of authorities' inability to control criminal operations or effectively protect their citizens.

A typical tactic of these "community police forces" is to organize traffic checkpoints and search for suspects on hand-written lists. On Wednesday in Tierra Colorado, several of the vigilantes opened fire on Mexican tourists headed to the beach who refused to stop at an unofficial checkpoint.