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May 8 (Bloomberg) -- The acting chief of Mexico's federal police was shot to death today, highlighting the risk officials face as drug traffickers fight back against a crackdown.

Edgar Millan Gomez was shot nine times early this morning as he was returning to his home in central Mexico City, said Javier Ortiz, a spokesman for the Security Ministry. One person is being held in connection with the crime.

Today's assassination is the latest in a series of murders of Mexican police officials, mostly spurred by drug violence. President Felipe Calderon has increased pressure on the cartels that funnel narcotics to the U.S. by dispatching thousands of troops and dedicating more police to the issue after violence related to trafficking killed more than 2,500 people last year.

``The government has to increase security for public officials: They are targets,'' said Jorge Chabat, a political science professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City. ``I don't think it will change the government's overall strategy, because it's working.''

A Mexico City district police chief was the target of a bomb that exploded near the city's police headquarters in February, and police in the states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Baja California have also been attacked.

Saul Pena, who was to be named as one of five police chiefs in Ciudad Juarez on the border with Texas, died yesterday after being shot leaving a police station in the city, El Economista newspaper reported. The report said he was the 20th police official to be killed in the city this year.

President's Condolences

``Mexico will strengthen its frontal assault on crime,'' Calderon's office said today in a statement expressing condolences for the police chief's death.

Two of Millan Gomez's bodyguards were wounded in today's shooting and are recovering in a hospital, Ortiz said. Millan Gomez was named acting chief of the force last year, and had previously worked for the federal investigative agency. Millan Gomez helped capture kidnapper Andres Caletri in 2000, and to break up several kidnapping rings, the security ministry said.

Calderon's approach to drug crime contrasts with that of his predecessor Vicente Fox, who focused on arresting leaders of large drug cartels, a strategy that led to turf wars between the gangs without reducing the flow of drugs into the U.S.

By focusing on disrupting the day-to-day operations of the cartels, Calderon has threatened the traffickers to the point where they are willing to attack public officials, Chabat said.

Mexican drug traffickers are the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugh Collins in Mexico City Hcollins8@bloomberg.net