Dozens killed in Mexico drug violence

A state police stands guard at the site where at least 5 bodies were found in a clandestine grave in Santa Maria Tlalmanalco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Sunday Feb. 27, 2011. / AP Photo/Miguel Tovar

MEXICO CITY - At least 14 people were killed in three separate attacks in bars in northern Mexico, authorities said Sunday.

In Coahuila state, across the border from Texas, nine men died late Saturday when gunmen opened fire inside two bars in separate attacks, state prosecutors said in a statement. Eleven others were wounded.

Assailants killed another five men late Saturday in a bar in the cartel-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval said.

In other drug violence in Mexico, at least 14 people were killed in three Pacific coast states.

Police in the resort city of Acapulco found the bodies of four men inside a trash container, all had been shot and three of them had their throats slit. The body of a fifth man was found alongside a highway, prosecutors in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said in a Sunday statement.

Also Sunday, soldiers killed four alleged drug traffickers in a clash in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The troops were on patrol along a river in the town of Santiago, Nayarit when assailants opened fire, the department said.

Soldiers seized a car, 12 fire weapons, 12 grenades and radio communication equipment, it said.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, police found the bodies of five men in different areas of the capital of Morelia, state prosecutors said in a statement.

All the victims had been shot in the head, prosecutors said.

More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against the country's drug gangs shortly after taking office in December 2006.

[formrusmcsgt]

Wew were in the same boat 70 years ago during prohibition. Instead of cartels fighting for dominance, it was mafia families.

How was it stopped?

By repealing prohibition.

[formrusmcsgt]

by anangryman February 27, 2011 10:12 PM EST
This is just one aspect of the lawlessness that goes on south of the border, and if nothing is done this will be happening in the US, our politicians are more worried about green energy that the certain destruction of this country due to the infiltration of illegal immigrants.
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This violence is not caused by immigrants, so your anger appears mis-directed.

This violence is caused by the bazillions made importing contraband and the fight over same.

Puritans want drugs to be kept illegal and as long as that's the case, we'll see the corrosion of the Mexican state from within - just like prohibition of alcohol put our politicians and cops in the mafia's pocket and turned the streets of America red in the mafia's fight over those profits.

[SacTownRob]

It seems Central America was the real hot bed for drug cartels in the '80s. Now it's Mexico. Anyone know why? It seems to me that Mexico should just go back to doing whatever it did in the 1980s. I don't recall hearing as much about Mexican drug cartels in the '70s and '80s. I had friends who'd travel there all of the time, and even visit rural areas, without problems. Something happened in Mexico in the past 20 years, with its government or something. If anyone knows and would like to enlighten us, I'd appreciate it.

[pollroller1]

The sad part of this is that if they would make drugs legal and let the government sell them. We wouldn't have to pay any taxes. There would be enough money to pay off the national debt and probably have a surplus. But that will never happen. Too logical.