GUADALAJARA, Mexico – A wounded municipal police chief was finished off by gunmen while he was being transported to a hospital by a Mexican Red Cross ambulance over the weekend, prosecutors said.

Jesus Caledonio Humildad Galaviz was ambushed and shot Saturday night on a highway in a remote area of Jalisco state near the border with Zacatecas state.

The police chief was wounded in the initial attack and finished off later by the gunmen who ambushed him, the Jalisco state Attorney General’s Office said.

Humildad Galaviz was attacked on the highway that links Ixtlahuacan, where he served as police chief, with Cuquio, a town in the northern part of Jalisco, the AG’s office said.

The police chief, who had received threats from criminal organizations, was treated by Red Cross paramedics and loaded into an ambulance that headed for Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco.

The gunmen stopped the ambulance, forced the paramedics out of the vehicle and opened fire on Humildad Galaviz, killing him, the AG’s office said.

The police chief’s body was taken to the coroner’s office, where an autopsy will be performed, the AG’s office said.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence blamed on powerful cartels.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 40,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations. EFE