Roughly 10 percent of the Mexican police force have been fired for failing to meet government standards, the Public Security Ministry said Monday.

A total of 3,200 officers were dismissed while 1,020 others are facing disciplinary proceedings, the ministry said in a statement.

The massive firings were part of the so-called New Police Model, brought into force on May 18. The new code of conduct includes a series of training, tests and standards aimed at reducing police corruption and improving education standards.

The ministry said the fired officers are suspected of being involved in crimes that have been reported for investigation, and they will be barred from taking jobs in any other security force. Prosecutions have already been underway against 465 of the sacked officers.

A police spokesman told local press that among the dismissed officers,there were four senior officers found to have links with organized crime in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city.

Mexico, currently engaged in a battle against organized crime, has sent federal police to the nation's most violent cities.

The government's crackdown on criminals, whose main business is smuggling drugs into the neighboring United States, has cost 28,000 lives in Mexico since the campaign began in December 2006, according to official data.

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