Linea Directa reporter Jose Luis Romero was known for his reporting on the Mexican drug cartels and he was taken at gunpoint from a restaurant in Los Mochis on December 30. The 40-year old Romero’s bloody and battered body was found by police only a few miles from where he was kidnapped. Hours after the abduction, the head of the police force investigating the crime was himself murdered. The perils of reporting on the drug trade in Mexico have become so dangerous, a major regional newspaper announced they’ll no longer report on the drug cartels after one of their reporters turned up dead. Thirteen journalists were killed in Mexico in 2009, the most dangerous place for reporters in the Western Hemisphere.