MEXICO CITY , Mexico ( CNN ) -- The police chief in Cancún has been relieved of his duties and placed under house arrest while he is investigated in the killing of a retired Mexican general who had been the area 's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours , Mexican media are reporting . A Mexican soldier guards the entrance at a Cancún police station where the military is investigating a murder . Francisco Velasco Delgado was detained by military officials early Monday and flown to Mexico City , where he was placed under 45 days of house arrest , according to the media reports . With Delgado 's removal , the military has taken over the Cancún police force , several newspapers reported . Cancún Mayor Gregorio Sanchez Martinez said the move was made `` to facilitate all types of investigations into the triple murder that happened last week , '' the Diario de Yucatan newspaper said . Salvador Rocha Vargas , the secretary for public security for the state of Quintana Roo , will lead the police force . He said he will take all the pertinent measures `` to clean up the Cancún police , '' the Excelsior newspaper reported Tuesday . Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinonez 's bullet-riddled body was found a week ago on a road outside Cancún . Authorities said he had been tortured before being shot 11 times . His aide and a driver also were tortured and killed . Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo said last week there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime . `` The general was the most mistreated , '' Rodriguez y Carrillo said at a news conference . `` He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken . '' An autopsy revealed he also had broken knees . Tello had been appointed less than 24 hours earlier as a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez , the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality , which includes the city of Cancún . Tello , who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63 , had moved to the resort area three weeks ago . Mexico is undergoing an unprecedented wave of violence that some have likened to a civil war . The government is battling drug cartels as the traffickers fight each other for control of the lucrative illicit market . Tello was the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years . Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Cancún street in 2006 . That crime remains unsolved . The latest killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rate in its history . Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora reported in December there had been around 5,400 slayings in 2008 , more than double the 2,477 tallied in 2007 . There already have been more than 400 drug-related killings this year , according to some news accounts .
Mexican media says local chief put under house arrest for 45 days . With Francisco Velasco Delgado 's removal , military takes control of police . Mayor : " I am not afraid to go out and fight against the drug cartels... Retired general killed after being area 's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours .