The governor of Morelos state in Mexico has taken over the local police force in 15 towns and cities after the assassination of Temixco City's mayor last Saturday. Mayor Gisela Mota was shot and killed at her own home less than a day after being sworn into office, per BBC.

"The government will not be intimidated by organised crime. Her murder is a message and a clear threat for the mayors who recently took office to not accept the police coordination scheme that we have supported and that is being built at a national level," Gov. Graco Ramirez said.

Mayor Mota's main program was to clean up the city of Temixco from drugs and organized crimes while proposing the removal of police power. Drug cartels and gangs have already infiltrated the police force that turned the city and the whole state of Morelos into one of the most violent places in the country.

Gov. Ramirez has accused the Rojos Gang and their leader Santiago "El Carrete" Mazari in the murder of Mota, which was described as a warning to other mayors to reject the state's police control policy called Single Command or "Mando Unico." The Temixco mayor is not the first official to be killed in Mexico as several others were murdered last year.

The 15 municipalities that were ruled to be under Gov. Ramirez's Single Command are Ayala, Cuernavaca, Emiliano Zapata, Huitzilac, Jantetelco, Jiutepec, Jojutla, Ocuituco, Temixco, Temoac, Tepalcingo, Tlaquiltenango, Tlayacapan, Xochitepec and Zacatepec. About half of the town mayors are refusing to go along with the policy including Cuernavaca Mayor Cuauhtémoc Blanco, a former soccer player, per Mexico Daily News.

Drug and gangs have plagued the state of Morelos in the past few years that killed its tourism and gave its residents a tough time. Cuernavaca and Temixco are parts of the known drug routes between the country's capital of Mexico City and the murder capital of Acapulco.

In regards to the suspects in the murder of Mayor Mota, policemen killed two suspects in a shootout while taking three others into custody. Officials detailed the three suspects as a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old man and a minor.

According to the Associated Press, the Rojos Gang is currently involved in a bloody cartel turf war with the Guerreros Unidos Gang from the state of Guerrero. The rivalry between gangs reportedly has played a role in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero back in September 2014 with suspects saying that the Guerreros Unidos used the local police to capture the students after mistaking them as members of the Rojos.