Mexico arrests 6 police in 2015 killings of civilians

Prosecutors in Mexico say they have arrested six federal police officers in connection with a series of shootings in which eight demonstrators died.

They are the first arrests under the current administration of federal police, a force that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has downsized and criticized as corrupt and inefficient.

A federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said Thursday the officers were arrested on homicide charges related to the 2015 shootings in the western state of Michoacán.

The federal Human Rights Commission has said at least six of the demonstrators were victims of use of excessive force or execution.

The killings occurred as federal police broke up a protest allegedly linked to a drug gang.