My two preferred dailies for monitoring drug and criminal gang news, La Polaka and Tiempo don't have a very large night shift, and so when something does happen, it usually keeps until the morning.

A car bomb exploded in the middle of a busy section of Juarez Thursday night killing three including a Mexican Federal agent. Initial reports which hit the Mexican wire did not do so until almost 2230 hrs, and the news the attack was a car bomb wasn't even mentioned until well after 2300 hrs.

The attack took place at about 2000 hrs directly following a collision with Mexican Federal police vehicles. Reports were the explosions were fragmentary hand grenades, but later it became clear the attack was a car bomb, the first ever in Mexico, certainly for the drug and criminal gang wars.

The vehicle used was a Ford Focus driven by a man witnesses say was dressed as a Juarez municipal police officer. The commander of the Mexican army, General de Division Eduardo Zarate with commander of the Fifth Military Zone said the explosives used was about 10 kilograms of C4 and was detonated remotely, probably with a cell phone. The explosion caused the vehicle to split in two

Apparently the driver of the car bomb deliberately crashed into a two vehicle Mexican Federal police convoy close to a drivers license office, then walked away from the scene. When paramedics and police arrived, the bomb was detonated.

The bomb was intended for Mexican Federal police. The victims include an unidentified Mexican Federal agent, a musician and an unidentified paramedic.

The element of the Juarez drug cartel, La Linea, is claiming responsibility for the attack. La Linea leader Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero was captured last February. A message scrawled on a wall in Juarez warned that more car bombs are on the way if Guerrero was not released.

According to information released by the Mexican Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP), the attack was ordered by La Linea second in command, José Antonio Acosta Hernandez, AKA El Diego, second in the line structure, under the direct command of Juan Pablo Ledezma, AKA El JL.

The report said that Guerrero was allegedly responsible for extortion kidnapping and drug distribution in Juarez in various nightclubs in the city as well as weapons acquisition and distribution.

According to the report Guerrero oversaw the campaign against Murderers Artists (AA), the service of the Sinaloa cartel and their associates in Juarez.