Mexico's missing students

Officials said that a drug gang implicated in the disappearance of 43 students in a southern city essentially ran the town, paying the mayor hundreds of thousands of dollars a month out of its profits from making opium paste to fuel the U.S. heroin market. The statements painted the fullest picture yet of the control that is exercised by gangs over a broad swath of Mexico's hot lands in Guerrero state. The Guerreros Unidos cartel's deep connections with local officials in the city of Iguala came to a head Sept. 26, 2014 when the mayor ordered municipal police to detain protesting students, who were then turned over to the drug gang.

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Mexico Violence

Demonstrators hold a poster with the images of the disappeared during a protest over the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college, in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Federal officials say they still have no explanation for the Sept. 26 violence that killed six, wounded at least 25 and left so many missing. Investigators still have no word on whether the 28 bodies found in a mass grave last weekend included some of the missing students. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Since then, Mexican authorities have mounted wide-ranging searches for the students, spurred by increasingly violent demonstrations that included the burning of Iguala's city hall by protesters. The case also has drawn international attention, and people in several Latin American nations staged vigils for the missing young people during the day.

To read more, visit AP's Big Story.

Mexico Violence

Municipal police officers suspected of involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero State, are marched to waiting transport at the Mexican attorney generals' organized crime unit headquarters, in Mexico City, Friday, Oct. 17, 2014. Mexico's attorney general announced Friday that federal authorities had arrested the leader of the Guerrero Unidos cartel, as well as 36 police officers from two different cities, in connection with the slaying of six people, three of them students, and the disappearance of 43 other students. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Mexico Violence

Supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) stand during a protest in support of the 43 disappeared Mexican rural college students, at a main road near San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, Wednesday Oct. 22, 2014. Even after authorities have arrested 50 people allegedly involved that include police officers and alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, the Mexican government says it still does not know what happened last month to the young people after they were last seen taken by local police in Iguala, a town in southern Mexico, then later allegedly handed over to drug cartel gunmen. (AP Photo/Moyses Zuniga Santiago)

Mexico Violence

A relative of missing students prays during a mass to protest the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. According to Mexico's attorney general none of the missing students were among the bodies found in the first set of mass graves outside the town. Authorities have said police involved in "disappearing" the students were working in conjunction with a local drug gang. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico Violence

Migrant rights activist Father Alejandro Solalinde arrives, surrounded by the media, outside the Organized Crime Unit, headquarters in Mexico City, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. In a radio interview last week, Solalinde said that witnesses told him that the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa Teachers College were placed on a wooden pyre and set on fire while they were still alive. Mexico’s General Attorney’s Office (PGR) summoned him to give testimony on the case Monday. The government says it still does not know what happened to the students of the radical teachers' college, after they were rounded up by local police and allegedly handed over to gunmen from a drug cartel on Sept. 26. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico Violence

A woman screams at the office of Mexico's attorney general claiming that police took her brother away in 2011 and he hasn't been seen since, as another weeping young woman is consoled by a friend, during a protest over the recent disappearance of 43 students following a confrontation with police in Guerrero State, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014. Amidst a larger protest in the capital, a small group of angry protestors broke windows and hurled flaming objects at the prosecutor's office. Police expanded their search for the missing college students Wednesday after investigators determined that 28 sets of human remains recovered from a mass grave were not those of any of the youths.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Mexico Violence

Mexican navy marines and officers belonging to the Attorney General's Office, guard the area where new clandestine mass graves were found near the town of La Joya, on the outskirts of Iguala, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Two weeks after 43 students disappeared in a confrontation with police in rural southern Mexico, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam announced that suspects had led investigators to four new mass graves near the southern city of Iguala where authorities unearthed 28 badly burned bodies last weekend. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

APTOPIX Mexico Violence

A woman places a candle on photos of the missing students during a protest against the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City's main avenue demanding the return of the missing students. The Mexican government says it still does not know what happened to the young people after they were rounded up by local police in Iguala, a town in southern Mexico, and allegedly handed over to gunmen from a drug cartel Sept. 26, even though authorities have arrested 50 people allegedly involved. They include police officers and alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico Violence

A man holds up an image of one of the 43 missing students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college during a protest outside the state Attorney General's office in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Tuesday Oct. 7, 2014. The students went missing after a Sept. 26 confrontation with local police that left six students and bystanders dead. Federal agents have been sent to the area after the discovery of a mass grave and charges that local police may have conspired with a criminal gang to kill and disappear the students. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)

Mexico Violence

Demonstrators march along the beachfront to protest the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college, in Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico, Friday, Oct. 17, 2014. Investigators determined that 28 sets of human remains recovered from a mass grave discovered last weekend outside Iguala, in Guerrero state, were not those of any of the youths who haven't been seen since being confronted by police in that city Sept. 26. (AP Photo)

The Week that Was in Latin America Photo Gallery

In this Oct. 6, 2014 photo, a clandestine grave is seen in Iguala, Mexico. State officials worked Monday to determine whether 28 bodies found in the clandestine graves are of the students who were attacked by local police in Iguala. President Enrique Pena Nieto called the deaths "outrageous, painful and unacceptable." (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

APTOPIX Mexico Violence

Demonstrators march in protest for the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college, in Mexico City, Wednesday Oct. 22, 2014. Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City's main avenue demanding the return of the missing students. The Mexican government says it still does not know what happened to the young people after they were rounded up by local police in Iguala, a town in southern Mexico, and allegedly handed over to gunmen from a drug cartel Sept. 26, even though authorities have arrested 50 people allegedly involved. They include police officers and alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

APTOPIX Mexico Violence

A masked student holds a banner as he participates, with hundreds of other students and relatives of missing students, in blocking a main highway in the city of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Sunday Oct. 5, 2014. Students and relatives are demanding answers a day after security forces investigating the role of municipal police in clashes in this southern city a week ago found a mass grave, raising fears the pits might hold the bodies of 43 students missing since last week in violence that also resulted in six shooting deaths. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

APTOPIX Mexico Violence

Demonstrators protest the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college in Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico, Friday, Oct. 17, 2014. Investigators determined that 28 sets of human remains recovered from a mass grave discovered last weekend outside Iguala, in Guerrero state, were not those of any of the youths who haven't been seen since being confronted by police in that city Sept. 26. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico Violence

Rubber boots lay near a group of clandestine graves near Iguala, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. State officials worked Monday to determine whether 28 bodies found in the clandestine graves are of the students who were attacked by local police in Iguala. President Enrique Pena Nieto called the deaths "outrageous, painful and unacceptable." (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico Violence

Teachers clash with riot police in front of the Guerrero state congress building in the city of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Monday Oct. 13, 2014. Hundreds of protesting teachers demanding answers about the 43 students who went missing on Sept. 26 during a confrontation with police, clashed with police at the local congress and outside the state government palace Monday. Officials are attempting to determine if any of the missing students are in newly discovered mass graves. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Mexico Violence

A young man paints the word "Liberty" in Spanish on the outline of a body in front of the National Palace, as thousands marched to demand the government find the 43 students who disappeared in southern Guerrero State, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Investigators still had no word on whether the 28 bodies found in a mass grave over the weekend included any of the missing students, who disappeared after two attacks allegedly involving Iguala police in which six people were killed and at least 25 wounded. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Brazil Mexico Violence

Images of disappeared Mexican rural college students hang on a gate of the Mexican Consulate below a banner that reads in Portuguese; "We want justice," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, during a protest condemning the disappearance of 43 rural college students. The Mexican government says it still does not know what happened to the young people after they were rounded up by local police in Iguala, a town in southern Mexico, and allegedly handed over to gunmen from a drug cartel Sept. 26, even though authorities have arrested 50 people allegedly involved. They include police officers and alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Mexico Violence

A college students throws a rock as he and hundreds others trash and later set on fire the state capital building in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Monday Oct. 13, 2014. Hundreds of protesting teachers and students demanding answers about the 43 students who went missing on Sept. 26 during a confrontation with police, clashed with police at the local congress and outside the state government palace Monday. Officials are attempting to determine if any of the missing students are in newly discovered mass graves. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Mexico Violence

Furniture burns after protesters attacked the municipal palace in Iguala, Mexico, Wednesday Oct. 22, 2014. Hundreds of protesters destroyed and set fire on the municipal palace of the town, at the same time as Mexico's top prosecutor announced that that the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, ordered the police attack last month that resulted in six deaths and the disappearance of 43 students who remain missing weeks later. The mayor's wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, has been linked to drug gangs and is now considered a fugitive, along with her husband and the Iguala police chief. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)

Mexico Violence

FILE - In this May 8, 2014 file photo, the mayor of the city of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, right, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa meet with state government officials in Chilpancingo, Mexico. Abarca ordered a police attack that resulted in six deaths and the disappearance of 43 students who remain missing weeks later, the country's top prosecutor, Murillo Karam, said Wednesday, Oct. 22. Karam also said Abarca's wife has been linked to drug gangs and is now considered a fugitive, along with her husband and the Iguala police chief. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez, File)

Opening text from the AP Big Story, Mexico: Mayor linked to deadly attack on students, by E. Eduardo Castillo and Mark Stevenson.  

Lead Image Caption: Mexican navy marines and officers belonging to the Attorney General's Office guard the area where new clandestine mass graves were found near the town of La Joya, on the ouskisrts of Iguala, Mexico, Thursday Oct. 9, 2014. Two weeks after 43 students disappeared in a confrontation with police in rural southern Mexico, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam announced that suspects had led investigators to four new mass graves near the southern city of Iguala where authorities unearthed 28 badly burned bodies last weekend. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

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