All local police officers in a Mexican city have been fired because of alleged links to organized crime.

At the request of the city council of Juventino Rosas, officials from the national police took control of the town in the state of Guanajuato, the local government announced on Wednesday.

Weapons, ammunition, equipment and vehicles have been seized.

Drugs were found in two officers.

The city's 100 or so police officers have been fired, the newspaper La Jornada reported.

The authority was infiltrated by the criminal syndicate Cártel Santa Rosa de Lima.

The group is primarily involved in gasoline theft.

Juventino Rosas is a "bastion of criminal groups," said Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo.

The industrial state of Guanajuato in the center of the Latin American country had recently become a focus of gang crime.

Nearly 100 homicides are currently recorded every day across Mexico.

Much of the violence is caused by cartels and gangs involved in drug smuggling, racketeering and gasoline theft.

Many have relationships with politicians and security forces.

How the cartel recruits children

Mexico's government warned of the infiltration of video games by drug gangs and the resulting danger to children. Organized crime uses video games and online networks such as Tiktok and Instagram to recruit young people, said Ricardo Mejia, Secretary of State for security, last Wednesday.

As an example, he cited the case of three children who had temporarily disappeared after allegedly being contacted on the Internet.

The police found the three children between the ages of 11 and 14 on October 9 after their families reported them missing.

One of the children came into contact with a suspected criminal in August via a free mobile phone game.

The suspect offered the child a job after they continued their conversation on Facebook, Mejia said.

The work consisted of "monitoring radio frequencies to warn of police presence," he said.

The payment was therefore 8,000 pesos (340 euros).

The minor accepted the offer and also recruited two school friends.

According to the Children's Rights Network in Mexico (Redim), thousands of children in Mexico are recruited by drug traffickers and other organized gangs each year.