CIUDAD JUAREZ: One of Mexico's most wanted hitmen has been killed in a shoot out here, ending a violent career that cost the lives of nearly 100 people, officials said.Luis Humberto Peralta Hernandez, 44, a former state police officer, was a top leader of "La Linea," a feared gang of killers working for the Gulf drug cartel.

Federal and local prosecutors said Peralta was killed in Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday, and his body was identified by authorities on Wednesday afternoon.Mexican officials had offered a five million peso ($400,000) reward for Peralta's capture.

Peralta served as a police commander in Chihuahua until 2009.At the time of his death, he was wanted for at least 96 homicides carried out in the course of a bloody turf war between rival gangs, much of it centered in this northern border city, the home base of the Juarez cartel.More than 3,100 people were killed last year as a result of drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez, one of the world's most dangerous cities.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011 

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