MEXICO CITY: At least 28 people have been killed in a vicious shoot-out between rival Mexican gangs in one of the deadliest single events in four years of spiralling drug violence across the country.
Police raced to the site of the battle, a highway intersection in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, where "they found 28 people dead, four others wounded and 10 abandoned vehicles," state prosecutors said late Wednesday.
Local media quoted witnesses as saying the rival gangs had exchanged hails of gunfire and hurled grenades at each other for around an hour, as shops in the nearby town of Ruiz closed up and terrified residents took cover inside.
The El Heraldo newspaper said 17 of the 28 bodies were found piled in the back of a pick-up truck and wearing the camouflage vests and black shirts favored by drug cartel hitmen.
Army troops and marines were dispatched to the site of the battle and were still patrolling the area early Thursday, authorities said.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the shooting or whether the gunmen belonged to Mexico's powerful drug cartels, which often clash over lucrative smuggling routes leading from the coasts north to the United States.
The shootout took place in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, which borders the Sinaloa state, home of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, 54, the most powerful drug lord in Mexico. His cartel has been waging brutal turf wars with the Zetas and La Familia gangs.
Mexico has seen an explosion in drug-related violence which has left some 37,000 dead, according to media reports, since the government launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.