Mexican Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora was among eight officials killed in a helicopter crash on the way to a meeting. The crash appears to be weather related, though some are speculating about foul play.

According to the AP, Mora "was an embodiment of the Mexican government's get-tough attitude, publicly pledging to bring the fight to the traffickers instead of backing down," traveling frequently to the country's dangerous areas in an effort to crackdown on drug cartels.

In what seems to be a bizarre coincidence, Blake Mora's predecessor, Juan Camilo Mourino, was killed in a plane crash almost exactly three years earlier. [AP, NYT, photo via AP]