A Mexico massacre in unfamiliar place: the capital

MEXICO CITY - Armed men rumbled into a gritty neighborhood of the Mexican capital Thursday and gunned down six men hanging around a convenience store, fueling fears that one of the world's largest cities is falling prey to the cartel-style violence that has long terrorized other parts of the country.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past week in five apparently unrelated massacres, including four shot Thursday near the border city of Ciudad Juarez. But the Mexico City shooting has raised alarm among residents about a drug war that has long seemed distant.

"Massacres have arrived" in Mexico City, El Universal newspaper declared. But Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera said he did not know if drug gangs were involved in the middle-of-the night shooting in Tepito, a working-class neighborhood just north of the colonial center.

Drug dealing is rampant in Tepito, but Mancera said there also have been problems with disputes among carjacking gangs.

Gunmen in a white SUV drove up just after midnight to a street of drab apartment buildings, corner grocery stores and auto repair shops, witnesses said. They jumped out of the car and gunned down six men in their 20s and 30s who had just gathered in front of a tiny convenience store. A seventh man was wounded.

People were still out on the streets when the shooting occurred. Drug dealing and robberies have been on the rise in the neighborhood but store owners still feel safe enough to keep their businesses open late. That in itself contrasts with border cities like Ciudad Juarez, where streets empty and many business close in the early afternoon for fear of drug-gang violence.

Several Tepito residents said they assumed the gunfire was fireworks for St. Judas Tadeo Day, commemorated with processions and street festivals across the city. As word spread, they slowly emerged from their apartments, shocked to find bodies face down in pools of blood.

"I've never seen anything so horrific happen. I go around at 2 or 3 in the morning and nothing has ever happened to me," said Guadalupe Ramirez, a 53-year-old grandmother walking past the site of the shooting. She said her 15-year-old grandchild had just returned from buying milk when the gunfire erupted.

The gunmen exchanged angry words with the young men before shooting, Mancera told the Televisa network. Bullet casings of two different calibers - 9 mm and .223 mm - were found at the scene, Mancera said, suggesting there were at least two gunmen.

Police were interviewing relatives and witnesses to determine the background of the victims and a possible motive. At least two of the victims had criminal records for robbery, Mancera later told reporters without elaborating.

"We would like to reassure the population that we are going to find those responsible," Mancera said.

Neighbors said they didn't know if the six young men belonged to a criminal gang but that they routinely hung around on the street, drinking beer and using drugs.

"I'm thinking of never coming back because every day things get worse," said Juan Fernandez, 60, who travels more than an hour to Tepito to get to the only job he's been able to find — as a clerk at the convenience store nearest to the shooting.

"You could come around at 11 or 12 at night and see how they come out, all these boys, drinking and smoking marijuana."

Carmen Vasquez, an unemployed 35-year-old, pulled her four children quickly past the shooting site on her way to a charity kitchen where she gets free meals every day.

"We walk with our children in fear. Because we never know where these criminals are going to come from," Vasquez said as her kids looked over their shoulders at candles that mourners had placed at the site. "I'm only coming here because I have to."

Trucks of Mexico City federal police circled the block periodically. By the afternoon the street was bustling again with people shopping and repairing cars, and giggling children playing pinball machines outside the convenience stores.

While crime is a major problem in Mexico City, cartel-style violence has been less common. Still, shootings between cartel gunmen and security forces have occasionally erupted during operations to arrest kingpins in the Mexico City area, one of the world's largest metropolises with an estimated 20 million people.

The epicenter of Mexico's long-running drug war is Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. More than 6,500 people have been killed in the city since a turf war erupted nearly three years ago between the Juarez and the Sinaloa cartels. Thousands more have died in many areas of Mexico as drug gangs have fought a government crackdown and each other.

Three women and a man were killed outside Ciudad Juarez and more than two dozen were wounded, many of them seriously, when armed men in several vehicles attacked buses carrying factory workers home early Thursday morning, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office.

There were no known suspects or motive in the attack on a highway in the Valle de Juarez region, where a string of small towns have been under siege from drug gangs trying to control trafficking routes. Mayors and police chiefs have been killed in the area, and even churches have been attacked.

On Wednesday, gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash in Tepic, a city in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. Over the weekend, gunmen massacred 14 young people at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, and 13 recovering addicts were killed in an attack on a drug rehab center in Tijuana.

-Associated Press

Ex-prosecutor's kidnapped brother shown on video

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - A video posted online Monday shows the kidnapped brother of a former Mexican state attorney general saying at gunpoint that he and his sister worked for a drug gang.

In the border city of Tijuana meanwhile, gunmen burst into a drug rehab center and killed 13 recovering addicts, according to police in the city, which officials had been portraying as an example of success in the war against drug gang terror.

The video posted on Youtube was the boldest example yet of a tactic that has become increasingly common in Mexico's brutal drug war: cartels kidnapping police, officials and regular citizens and releasing video clips of the captives admitting to crimes, including government corruption. It is often impossible to verify the accuracy of the admissions made under extreme pressure.

The release of the clip also adds to drug gang pressure on public officials in Mexico, following a string of slayings of mayors, senior police officers and a gubernatorial candidate.

The video, which was removed from Youtube within hours, shows attorney Mario Gonzalez sitting in a chair, handcuffed and surrounded by five masked men pointing guns at him.

Gonzalez is the brother of Patricia Gonzalez, who stepped down Oct. 3 as attorney general of the border state of Chihuahua when a new governor took office. Mario Gonzalez was kidnapped Thursday from his office.

Chihuahua state government officials confirmed the man in the video was Mario Gonzalez, but they refused to comment on the credibility of the words he spoke at gunpoint - which included blaming his sister for several notorious killings in the state - and suggested the allegations might be investigated.

"We cannot give an opinion on the veracity or falseness of the information in the video," said Graciela Ortiz, the Chihuahua interior secretary.

"What's important," she added, "is that citizens can be sure the state will act objectively and impartially to apply the full weight of the law against anyone responsible for a crime, regardless if they are ex-officials or of the position that they held."

An aide to Patricia Gonzalez did not reply to several phone calls seeking comment, but in the past, she has denied rumors that she protected drug traffickers. She is not known to be under formal investigation for any crime.

In brief interview with El Diario de Juarez newspaper, Patricia Gonzalez lashed out at the news media for its coverage of the video.

"I think this is the worst injustice you could have done to me, the worst thing you could have done. How can you be saying these things about me?" she was quoted as saying in the newspaper's online edition.

The newspaper said Gonzalez hung up abruptly and then turned off her phone.

Gonzalez was attorney general during the most violent peacetime period in the history of Chihuahua state. A nearly three-year-old turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels has made Chihuahua the deadliest state in Mexico, and the border city of Ciudad Juarez one of the world's most dangerous cities.

In the video, Mario Gonzalez, answering questions posed by a man off camera, says his sister protected La Linea, a street gang tied to the Juarez cartel, and that he acted as the liaison between the gang and attorney general's office, collecting payoffs.

The questioner also prompted Mario Gonzalez into saying that his sister ordered several killings in Ciudad Juarez, where drug-gang violence has claimed more than 6,500 lives over the past three years. Among those, he said, was the 2008 killing of Armando Rodriguez, a crime reporter for El Diario de Juarez.

The 10-minute video ends without any word on Gonzalez's fate. No group has claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and officials said they have no word on his whereabouts.

The Juarez and Sinaloa cartels have each claimed - through videos, graffiti and messages left on bodies - that the other receives government protection. Generally, the Juarez cartel alleges that the Sinaloa gang is protected by the federal government, while the Sinaloa cartel says its rival is supported by local and state officials.

While police and other officials have been arrested for drug ties, both state and federal officials deny protecting any cartel and often point to the fact that members of all factions have been arrested.

Several Mexican cartels have released chilling videos of forced confessions, although none had targeted officials as high-ranking as Patricia Gonzalez.

In July, a video showed masked members of the Zetas drug gang interrogating a police officer who said that inmates in a prison in northern Durango state allied with the Sinaloa cartel were given guns and cars and allowed out of jail to commit murders. At the end of the video the officer was shot to death.

The prison director was arrested after it appeared.

In Ciudad Juarez last week, a video circulated of a woman in her 20s confessing at gunpoint to extorting several businesses on behalf of La Linea. The woman had been found shot to death on a Ciudad Juarez street two weeks before the video emerged, a flower placed on her back.

In Tijuana, meanwhile, prosecutors said they were investigating whether the massacre Sunday night of 13 recovering addicts at a drug rehab center was related to authorities' seizure last week of nearly 135 metric tons of marijuana.

Shortly after the attack, a voice was heard over a police radio frequency threatening that there would be as many as 135 killings in Tijuana - a possible reference to the record marijuana seizure.

Baja California state Attorney General Rommel Moreno said attack on the rehab center also might have stemmed from a dispute between rival drug-dealing gangs but that investigators were looking into a possible connection with the seizure.

The attack on the ramshackle, privately run center in Tijuana is the first such mass killing at a rehab center in the city.

Several such attacks have killed dozens of recovering addicts in Ciudad Juarez, and the voice on the police radio frequency was also heard saying "this is a taste of Juarez."

Just two weeks ago, President Felipe Calderon touted Tijuana as a success story in his nearly four-year-old drug war, noting during a festival to promote the city's industries that homicides are down from a peak in 2008.

Since his visit, drug gangs have resumed gruesome tactics not seen in the Tijuana for months, beheading rivals and hanging bodies from bridges. Some residents have expressed fear that the cartels are deliberating intensifying the violence to undermine Calderon's message.

-Associated Press

Official: Honduran helped massacre survivor flee

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A Honduran who survived the massacre of 72 migrants in Mexico helped untie the only other survivor - a wounded Ecuadorean - and the two fled together, an official said Friday.

In an interview with El Heraldo newspaper, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Alden Rivera revealed details for the first time about the escape.

Mexican officials had previously said there was only one survivor of the massacre — the Ecuadorean who stumbled wounded to a military checkpoint and alerted marines. The Mexicans said when they learned that a Honduran also survived, they kept it a secret to protect him. But Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa revealed the information earlier this week.

Investigators believe the Zetas drug gang kidnapped the migrants and gunned them down after they refused to work for the cartel.

Marines found the bound, blindfolded bodies slumped against a wall last week after raiding the ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which has been embroiled in a vicious turf battle between the Zetas and their former employer, the Gulf Cartel.

Mexican officials say cartels have increasingly been recruiting vulnerable migrants to smuggle drugs.

After the shooting stopped, the Honduran survivor managed to untie himself, then helped free the Ecuadorean, who had been shot in the neck, Rivera said.

Rivera did not say whether the Honduran was hurt but the Ecuadorean survivor, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, told state-run television in Ecuador on Thursday that the Honduran somehow managed to avoid being shot.

Lala, 18, was flown home to Ecuador on Sunday after recovering from his wounds at a Mexican hospital. He is now under a witness protection program in Ecuador. The Honduran is under the protection of Mexican security forces.

Rivera said the two migrants fled the ranch together but when they heard gunshots behind them, they separated.

Lala said he approached two groups of people who refused to help him until he finally reached the marine checkpoint.

The Honduran, Rivera said, walked for a long time until he found a migrant shelter. Rivera revealed no other details about the migrant's escape, but said he was in good health and had been in contact with his family in Honduras.

Lala told Ecuadorean television that a total of 76 migrants were traveling together - Hondurans, Ecuadoreans, Guatemalans and at least one Brazilian.

But a spokesman for Mexico's Attorney General's Office, Ricardo Najera, said Friday that 77 people were in the group: the 72 killed, the two survivors and three Mexicans whose whereabouts were unknown.

The Mexicans were two drivers and an assistant, he said, adding the information came from the testimony of the Honduran and the Ecuadorean migrants.

In a statement that Lala gave to Mexican investigators, he said one migrant agreed to work with the Zetas, but did not reveal what happened to that person. The Associated Press has access to that statement last week.

During a meeting in Guatemala, meanwhile, Central American foreign ministers urged Mexico to find the killers and take steps to avoid more atrocities.

"We call on Mexican authorities to take measures as soon as possible to avoid events like the one that occurred in Tamaulipas," said Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati.

-Associated Press

Mexico: Soldiers kill 30 in troubled border state

MONTERREY, Mexico - Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country's drug war, authorities said Friday.

Twenty-five of the suspects were killed Thursday during a raid on a building in Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state. The other five were killed Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, during a shootout on a highway leading to the border, the Mexican Defense Department said in a statement.

All 30 gunmen were believed to belong to the Zetas gang - the group suspected of killing 72 migrants nearly two weeks ago in what could be Mexico's biggest cartel massacre to date.

Violence along Mexico's northeastern border with Texas has reached warlike proportions amid fighting between security forces and two feuding drug gangs - the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, former allies who split this year and started a vicious battle for trafficking routes in the area.

One of two survivors of the massacre last month - an Ecuadorean - said the killers identified themselves as Zetas and gunned down the migrants because they refused to work for the gang.

A military aircraft flying over Ciudad Mier on Thursday spotted several gunmen in front of a building, the Defense Department statement said. When ground troops moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gunbattle in which 25 suspected cartel members died and two soldiers were wounded.

Authorities rescued three people believed to be kidnapping victims in the raid, according to the statement. The military said troops seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.

Earlier, a military spokesman said the gunmen were believed to be on a property controlled by the Zetas.

The second shootout erupted Friday morning outside the town of Juarez in Nuevo Leon, on a highway leading to McAllen.

Soldiers went to the area after receiving an anonymous tip that armed men were circulating in a black SUV, according to a military spokesman. He provided the information on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal his name. The spokesman said the armed men opened fire, provoking the shootout that killed five gunmen, all of whom were believed to be Zetas.

Drug violence has claimed more than 28,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon intensified a crackdown on cartels after taking office in late 2006.

-Associated Press

Mexico captures reported drug lord 'La Barbie'

MEXICO CITY - A former Texas high school football player and petty street dealer who allegedly rose to become one of Mexico's most savage assassins became the third major drug lord brought down by Mexico in less than a year, and could provide intelligence on even bigger kingpins.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" for his fair complexion and green eyes, grinned broadly Tuesday as police described a life of luxury and violence that made a battleground of central Mexico, where he waged a war for control against his slain boss's brother.

The 37-year-old Valdez faces charges in three U.S. states for trucking in tons of cocaine. As a U.S. citizen living illegally in Mexico, Valdez could be deported to the United States if Mexico agrees, or he could face prosecution in Mexico for drug-related crimes. Mexican authorities say he could be responsible for dozens of murders.

The arrest was portrayed by the Mexican and U.S. governments as a victory for President Felipe Calderon, who is trying to recover public support for his war on organized crime in the face of escalating violence.

Valdez's capture Monday on a ranch outside Mexico City was the culmination of a yearlong pursuit after police made some key arrests at XXXoticas, an Acapulco tourist bar owned by Valdez, who passed himself off there as an entrepreneur.

Mexican police said they chased Valdez across five Mexican states for a year, a pursuit that intensified in recent months as they raided home after home owned by the drug lord, missing him but nabbing several of his allies. Among those taken into custody was his girlfriend and her mother, Valdez's U.S. lawyer said.

"This has been going on for quite a while," attorney Kent Schaffer told The Associated Press. "So you figure it's just a matter of time."

The arrest also yielded computers, telephones and other equipment authorities said would likely provide more information about his group.

-Associated Press

Police arrested in northern Mexico mayor's killing

MONTERREY, Mexico - Six city police officers were arrested Friday in the killing of a mayor in northern Mexico, as the country's escalating drug violence targets more public officials.

The suspects included the officer who guarded the house where Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was seized on Sunday. The officer had said he was kidnapped with the mayor and later freed unharmed.

Adrian de la Garza, head of the police investigations agency in Nuevo Leon state, told a news conference that the police officers received 6,000 pesos ($700) per month to cooperate with criminals "in different ways and different affairs," with some allegedly acting as lookouts.

"They were employees" of a criminal gang, De la Garza said at a news conference where he displayed security-camera footage from Cavazo's house, showing armed kidnappers arriving at the home on Sunday night in five SUVs.

The grainy video showed the vehicles turn on flashing lights, apparently to simulate police patrol vehicles, as armed men get out without any apparent resistance from the officer guarding the home.

Cavazos is seen being lead out of his home and forced into a vehicle at gunpoint.

The guard is then also seen getting into the front cabin of another SUV, contrary to his earlier statement claiming he had been bundled into the trunk of one of the vehicles and later dumped unharmed by the side of the road.

Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said the officers confessed to being involved in the Cavazos' killing, though some declared their innocence while being presented to the press.

"We are still looking for others who were involved as well," Garza y Garza said.

The body of the 38-year-old mayor was found handcuffed and gagged Wednesday outside of his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey.

Cavazos' death comes amid increasing violence in the northeast of the country attributed to a dispute the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas. Authorities refused to say which cartel is believed to be responsible for Cavazos' killing.

Meanwhile, a federal judge presiding over the case of former Cancun mayor facing drug-related charges survived an attack Thursday in the west coast state of Nayarit, according to a federal police report. The assault killed one of two bodyguards for Judge Carlos Alberto Elorza.

President Felipe Calderon is proposing that Mexico consider appointing anonymous judges for drug-trafficking trials, a change that would contradict the effort he promoted to build a more open judicial system.

Elorza is the judge in the case of Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor who was forced out of the Quintana Roo gubernatorial campaign when he was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. Federal police minister Wilfrido Robledo told reporters that Elorza had received threats, so his security detail was increased. He rode in an armored SUV when he came under attack.

The federal Judiciary Council, which oversees Mexico's courts, said in a statement that it "rejects violence that represents an attack on the rule of law and the country's institution."

Cavazo's killing has prompted authorities to call for more patrols by both the army and federal police in Nuevo Leon, where shootings are commonplace.

On Friday, four alleged cartel gunmen were arrested in Santiago, but De la Garza said they were not linked to the mayor's killing.

The Army said the four suspects were detained at a ranch where soldiers found 9 assault rifles, 5 grenades and what appeared to be a grenade or rocket launcher.

And in another Monterrey suburb, Santa Catarina, three security guards from the FEMSA bottling company were wounded in a shootout outside a school. FEMSA spokesman Carlos Velazquez said the guards were performing standard patrols in the area when the gunmen opened fire on their vehicles.

"We energetically condemn the atmosphere of danger that prevails in the greater Monterrey area and which puts residents lives at risk," the company said in a statement.

Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way and had sought advice on how to handle the threats.

Officials at the state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, said the army did not received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

The leading candidate for governor in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Nuevo Leon, was shot to death a week before the election. A mayoral candidate in Tamaulipas also was shot in May.

Drug violence has killed more than 28,000 people since December 2006, when Calderon started his crackdown on the cartels.

-Associated Press

Calderon: Mexico should consider anonymous judges

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon said Mexico should consider appointing anonymous judges for drug trafficking trials, an unexpected proposal that he acknowledged contradicts the country's efforts to build a more open judicial system.

Calderon, who raised the idea Thursday during meeting with senators on national security, said Mexico should at least consider the idea as drug cartels stage increasingly bold attacks on public official at all levels.

"I recognize that this goes against ... our legal tradition," Calderon said. "But in all honesty, gentlemen, I have found that citizens, police, judges, prosecutors are at risk, in the sense that they are completely exposed to criminal vengeance."

"We should consider whether this is valid or not, whether anonymous judges would work or not," Calderon said.

It was a surprise comment from the Mexican leader, who has touted an ongoing reform of Mexico's secretive, inquisitorial judicial system. That overhaul, backed by millions of dollars in U.S. aid, will create an accusatory system that puts the burden of proof on prosecutors and establish oral trials to replace proceedings now carried out almost entirely in writing.

A law approved by all 32 Mexican states in 2008 calls for the changeover to be completed by 2016.

Calderon, who gave no plan for carrying out the debate on anonymous judges, is facing mounting complaints from political opponents - and even some allies - that his national security strategy is failing. He has convoked a series of national meetings to address those concerns.

Even if Mexico decides against anonymous judges, Calderon said the country needs to find a way to protect judges, prosecutors and witnesses. He said some federal police have been gunned down just after testifying at trials.

Peru and Colombia have at times used anonymous or "faceless" judges in their wars against guerrilla groups and drug traffickers as a means to protect judges from reprisals for ruling against suspects. The use of such judges has been criticized by human rights groups.

Calderon also stepped up his criticism of the U.S. government for not doing enough about drug consumption and the smuggling of guns into Mexico. Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials both say that many of the guns used by cartels are smuggled in from the U.S.

Calderon said Mexico should mount an international campaign to bring attention "again and again to the irresponsibility of the Americans, even if they get upset and even if it disturbs their (election) campaigns."

"It's unacceptable that the voracity of the weapons industry is fomenting the levels of violence we have here," Calderon said.

Mexico's drug gang violence has reached unprecedented levels since Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug-trafficking hotspots in 2006.

More than 28,000 people have since died in Mexico's drug war, while gang attacks have become bolder and more gruesome.

On Wednesday, Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the northern Mexican town of Santiago was found dead three days after gunmen disguised as police kidnapped him from his home. Cavazos, who had been shot twice in the head, was found with his hands were bound and his head had been wrapped in tape, suggesting the work of Mexico's brutal cartels.

The region surrounding Santiago, a favorite getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey, has become a battleground for turf between the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Investigators have not determined a motive for Cavazos' assassination. The mayor, who belonged to Calderon's National Action Party, frequently spoke out against drug violence, but allies have said he had not taken any dramatic security measures that may have angered the cartels.

But Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way. Fernandez said Cavazos had come to him for advice on how to handle the threats.

"He was a little afraid and he was reaching out to people with experience in this sort of thing," Fernandez, an outspoken mayor who has also received threats and last year sent his family to the U.S. for their own safety, said in an interview with Multimedios on Wednesday night.

Officials at the Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, told The Associated Press that the army also had never received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

-Associated Press

Mexico: Hunting party of 8 killed in Oaxaca state

OAXACA, Mexico -- Attackers shot eight men to death and piled their bodies in a pickup truck in the southern state of Oaxaca, and gunmen kidnapped the mayor of a city on the outskirts of the northern industrial hub of Monterrey, Mexican authorities said Monday.

It was unclear whether Mexico's drug gangs were responsible for the Oaxaca killings or the kidnapping of Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the city of Santiago, in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.

But Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Alejandro Garza described the abducted mayor as "leading the front and showing his face in the fight against organized crime." He said no ransom demand had yet been received.

Garza said the mayor was taken from his home around midnight by men wearing uniforms from a police agency that was dissolved years ago. A security guard for the mayor who was released shortly after the abduction reported the crime.

The area around Monterrey has been wracked by bloody drug gang turf battles, and attacks on political figures by drug gangs -- once extremely rare -- have become more commonplace.

In June, gunmen believed linked to a drug cartel assassinated the front-running candidate for governor of the border state of Tamaulipas, and a month earlier gunmen killed a candidate for mayor of a Tamaulipas town.

Police said the Oaxaca victims were apparently on a hunting trip in a rural part of Oaxaca near the Gulf coast when they were attacked. The state prosecutors' office said they were shot in the head and found Sunday. One was 15 years old.

The motive was under investigation, but the region has been wracked by drug violence, land disputes and other feuds.

In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, at least nine people were killed in attacks by gunmen on two parties Sunday.

Five men were slain when gunmen burst into a house in a low-income neighborhood where a birthday party was being held and opened fire. Dozens of shells from the type of assault rifle favored by drug gangs were found at the scene.

Prosecutors said that in the other attack Sunday evening, gunmen killed three women and a man at another party. Prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the gunmen arrived in three vehicles, blocked off the street where the pool party was being held, and opened fire with assault rifles on a group of about 15 people.

Elsewhere in Ciudad Juarez, the bound, bullet-ridden bodies of four men were found dumped on a roadside.

Drug violence has taken more than 1,400 lives in Ciudad Juarez -- and 28,000 nationwide -- since the government stepped up its offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

On Sunday, Proceso magazine published the first death-scene photos to emerge of one of the higher-profile victims: drug lord Ignacio Coronel, killed in a clash with soldiers on July 29.

The photos -- Proceso did not say where it got them -- show Coronel fully clothed, lying in a pool of blood and near what appears to be a pistol.

The military has been cautious about the release of such images since pictures showing drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva with his pants down and blood-soaked money scattered over his chest emerged shortly after he was killed in a shootout with marines in December.

In weekend violence, assailants threw grenades at offices of the Televisa network in Monterrey and the border city of Matamoros. Nobody was hurt.

In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, police reported Sunday they found the bound, burned remains of a body with a federal police badge.

Veracruz detective Ricardo Carrillo Almeida said the victim appeared to have been tortured, and authorities were working to identify him. A federal police officer was reported missing in the area several days earlier.

-Associated Press

Mexican president open to change in drug strategy

MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon says he's willing to change Mexico's drug-war strategy and promised a new offensive against money laundering.

That's in the wake of hearing blistering criticism from opposition leaders. More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon launched the offensive in late 2006, sending thousands of troops to drug hot spots.

For more than 3½ years, Calderon fiercely defended his policies, even as vicious cartel turf battles and attacks on police spread deep into Mexico and all along the regions bordering the United States.

Last week, Calderon began meeting with academics, experts and civic groups to exchange ideas on combating drugs. He now appears more willing to discuss alternatives -- even the legalization of drugs, a proposal that he personally opposes.

-Associated Press

Mexican police investigate possible new drug gang

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Mexican authorities are investigating the possible emergence of a new drug gang that appeared to take credit for six killings through a message left with the bodies Monday, officials said.

The six men were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero state police said in a statement. Next to them lay a message reading: "This will happen to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers. Attentively, the New Cartel of the Sierra."

Authorities are investigating the authenticity of the gang, said an official with the state prosecutors office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official said authorities had no previous knowledge of such an organized crime group.

The car was reported stolen hours before the bodies were found, according to the police statement. The owner told police that armed men intercepted him on a highway and forced him out of the car.

One body was found stuffed inside a black bag and the rest were tied up.

At least seven major drug trafficking cartels operate in Mexico, but there are many smaller gangs throughout the country, often affiliated with one of the bigger groups.

The cartels have increasingly splintered since President Felipe Calderon launched an intensified crackdown after taking office in late 2006, deploying thousands of troops and federal police across Mexico.

Mexican authorities have blamed the infighting for a surge of gang violence that has killed nearly 25,000 people in less than four years.

Most recently, a fight for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel has increased violence in central and southwestern Mexico, including Guerrero state, which is home to the resort city of Acapulco.

The Beltran Leyva cartel splintered after its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a gunbattle with Mexican marines in December. That split occurred only a year after the Beltran Leyva gang broke with the Sinaloa cartel, which remains one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

Violence has also surged this year along Mexico's northeastern border with the U.S. since the Gulf cartel split with its former gang of enforcers, the Zetas.

In that region, the bodies of four men were found dumped in a plaza Monday in Nuevo Laredo, a city across the border from Laredo, Texas, the Tamaulipas state police said in statement. The bodies had signs of torture and were found with the remains of a dog and a cat and several threatening messages.

In the city of Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City, state investigators found the burned bodies of three men near a major highway. The victims had been bound before being burned. Painted on a nearby wall were the letters "CPS," an apparent reference to the Southern Pacific drug cartel.

Mexico: Prison guards let killers out, lent guns

MEXICO CITY - Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.

After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the Attorney General's Office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference.

The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under a form of house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have yet been filed.

Prosecutors said the prison-based hit squad is suspected in three mass shootings, including the July 18 attack on a party in the city of Torreon, which is near Gomez Palacio. In that incident, gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd of mainly young people in a rented hall, killing 17 people, including women.

Police found more than 120 bullet casings at the scene, and Najera said tests matched those casings to four assault rifles assigned to guards at the prison.

Similar ballistics tests linked the guns to earlier killings at two bars in Torreon, the capital of northern Coahuila state, he said. At least 16 people were killed in those attacks on Feb. 1 and May 15, local media reported.

Najera blamed the killings on disputes between rival drug cartels. "Unfortunately, the criminals also carried out cowardly killings of innocent civilians, only to return to their cells," he said.

Coahuila and neighboring Durango are among several northern states that have seen a spike in drug-related violence that authorities attribute to a fight between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, known as the Zetas.

Mexico has long had a problem with investigating crimes, catching criminals and convicting people. Reports estimate less than 2 percent of crimes in Mexico result in prison sentences. But Sunday's revelation suggests that even putting cartel gunmen in prison may not prevent them from continuing to commit crimes.

Interior Secretary Francisco Blake said the revelation "can only be seen as a wake-up call for authorities to address, once again, the state of deterioration in many local law enforcement institutions ... we cannot allow this kind of thing to happen again."

Also Sunday, Mexican federal police announced the arrest of an alleged leading member of a drug gang blamed in recent killings and a car-bombing in the violence-ridden border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Police described Luis Vazquez Barragan, 39, as a top member of La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel, saying he received orders directly from cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Vazquez Barragan allegedly organized payments, moved drugs and oversaw a system of safe houses in and around Ciudad Juarez.

Police said he held the same rank as fugitive gang leader Juan Pablo Ledezma, though Vazquez Barragan is not named on reward or most-wanted lists published by the Attorney General's Office, as Ledezma is.

La Linea has been blamed for a car bomb that killed three people July 15 in Ciudad Juarez and for two separate shootings March 13 that killed a U.S. consular employee and two other people connected to the consulate.

Police did not say when they caught Vazquez Barragan, but he was allegedly in possession of about a half-kilogram (pound) of cocaine and two guns.

His arrest led to a raid on a safe house where authorities detained four suspects and freed a kidnap victim.

Also Sunday, the Attorney General's Office said soldiers on patrol in Ciudad Madero in the border state of Tamaulipas seized an arsenal of about three dozen guns, 17 grenades and thousands of bullets in a house.

Elsewhere in Tamaulipas, police and prosecutors raided a lot full of truck-pulled tankers in the border city of Reynosa and seized two loaded with oil of a type sometimes stolen from the pipelines of the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos. More than a dozen other tankers and freight containers were also seized.

Mexican drug cartels have allegedly become involved in increasingly sophisticated thefts of fuel and oil from Mexico's pipelines.

In the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, authorities reported Sunday they had found the bullet-ridden bodies of six men dumped in various locations, including three in or around the resort of Acapulco. Two of the dead men were identified as people kidnapped earlier in the month.

-Associated Press

Mexican president replaces top security official

Caption: Mexico's new Interior Minister Francisco Blake, left, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, center, and Mexico's outgoing Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, gesture during a ceremony at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 14. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president accepted the resignation Wednesday of his top domestic security official, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont, and named a former congressman with experience in fighting drug cartels to replace him.

President Felipe Calderon praised the hands-on experience the new federal interior secretary, Jose Francisco Blake, gained serving in the same post at the state level in Baja California, a border state plagued by drug violence.

"In that position, he has played a fundamental role in confronting in a decisive way the problems of violence in that state," Calderon said of Blake, who will oversee the multi-agency national security council.

"The knowledge he has of crime, and the good relations he managed to build between the police and army in the fight against crime in Baja California, will without doubt be of great value in strengthening the fight for public safety," Calderon said.

Mexico's federal police and the army have played the leading roles in a war against drug cartels that has cost more than 22,700 lives since Calderon announced an anti-drug offensive in late 2006.

But in many regions, the army has voiced mistrust of corruption-ridden local police forces.

The Interior Department that Blake will head plays a key role in coordinating efforts between the forces and intelligence gathering. It also recently began promoting a series of social programs it said are aimed at reducing the poverty and unemployment that contribute to the drug problem.

One of the challenges facing the new interior secretary will be gaining approval for a government proposal to combine scattered, ill-equipped and poorly supervised city police forces into single, statewide forces.

Calderon praised Gomez Mont, but more for his efforts at political reforms since assuming the post in November 2008 than for any hands-on involvement in the war against drug cartels.

Gomez Mont's most famous moment in the drug war was an undignified moment in the drug-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez when a heckler slapped him in the back of the head.

Calderon suggested that Gomez, a prominent lawyer and gifted orator with little or no law enforcement experience, would return to private practice.

The leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, welcomed Gomez Mont's resignation.

In a statement, the PRD said his exit "puts an end to a period of constant confrontation between the former head of domestic policy and the opposition parties, who he always treated with disrespect."

The resignation came after a highly publicized dispute between Gomez Mont and Calderon over the advisability of forming electoral alliances with leftist parties like the PRD to prevent a predicted wave of victories by the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Gomez Mont heatedly opposed such alliances, and resigned from Calderon's conservative National Action Party in February to protest the pacts, which some party members said placed in doubt the party's ideological underpinnings.

However, the alliances helped coalition candidates wrest two important governorships from the PRI in the country's July 4th elections.

He also angered the opposition by overseeing the liquidation of a state-owned electrical power company whose militant union had been a constant thorn in the side of the government.

The new interior secretary, Blake, stressed his commitment to human rights and press freedoms, and promised "a democratic security policy, supported not only by the forces of law and order, but also by the three branches of government, and society as a whole."

"We will have to specially direct our efforts in meeting the challenges to public safety and the fight against organized crime," Blake said in accepting the post.

Gomez Mont was also hurt by the antics of his brother Miguel - the former head of the country's tourism investment fund - who was involved in an embarrassing scuffle at the soccer World Cup in June, and later resigned.

Calderon also announced the appointment of Bruno Ferrari, the former head of the country's investment promotion agency, as economy secretary, to replace Gerardo Ruiz Mateos, who will move on to become Calderon's chief-of-staff.

Ferrari said Mexico has "been promoting a responsible and profound transformation," and pledged to continue that work.

But while it has passed tax and regulatory reforms, Calderon's administration has made little headway on its biggest challenge - reforming the country's antiquated labor laws and opening the state-controlled oil sector to greater private participation.

Ferrari said he would continue to make Mexico more investment-friendly, more competitive and productive, and pledged greater economic growth and job creation, but did not say what specific reforms he would pursue in the two years left in the administration.

-Associated Press

7 gunmen, 1 soldier dead in clashes in Mexico

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - The Mexican army says seven gunmen and one soldier have died this week in gunbattles in two cities bordering Texas.

According to army statements, the first shootout killed a soldier in Reynosa on Sunday. Four gunmen died Tuesday in the same city, and another three were killed in Nuevo Laredo.

The army also said Wednesday that it's investigating an altercation between soldiers and journalists covering the Nuevo Laredo shootout. A video posted online shows soldiers pushing two reporters. The army said it was trying to remove the journalists for their own safety.

Northeastern Mexico has seen increased violence due to a turf battle between the Gulf drug cartel and its former ally, the Zetas drug gang.

-Associated Press

3 bodies found hanging from bridges in Mexico

CUERNAVACA, Mexico - Three dead bodies were found Tuesday hanging from pedestrian bridges in the central Mexican city of Cuernavaca

Morelos state prosecutors' spokesman Efrain Vega said the victims were shot to death. The bodies were accompanied by threatening notes signed by a drug gang.

Vega said the three men escaped from a state prison last month.

The message accused them of working for Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S.-born enforcer known as "La Barbie." It was attributed to the Southern Pacific cartel, believed to have formed from the remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel.

Authorities say more than 120 people have died this year in a turf war between Valdez Villareal and Hector Beltran Leyva.

Also Tuesday, gunmen killed three state police officers in two ambush-style attacks in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Another officer was seriously wounded.

Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for prosecutors in the northern state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, said the first attack occurred on a busy avenue, killing both agents in a patrol vehicle; a second patrol car was attacked 15 minutes later elsewhere on the same avenue, killing one officer and wounding another.

Ciudad Juarez has been hit by over 1,400 drug-related killings so far in 2010, and over 2,600 in 2009. There was no immediate information on the identity of the assailants or motive in the Tuesday attack.

Also Tuesday, Mexico's Defense Department reported that three assailants died Monday in a shootout with soldiers in the border city of Reynosa. The soldiers reportedly came under fire while on patrol, returned fire and seized three rifles at the scene.

-Associated Press

Mexican marines grab alleged drug gang lieutenant

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's navy says marines raided a house in the Pacific resort of Acapulco and captured a suspected regional chief of a drug gang involved in a bloody turf war in the center and south of Mexico.

A statement Sunday from the navy says troops detained Gamaliel Aguirre Tavira on Saturday, along with two women and another man. It says the marines found six rifles, five pistols, 41 magazines, 2,000 bullets, a grenade launcher and eight grenades.

Authorities say the 35-year-old Aguirre Tavira is a close ally of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a Texas-born gang boss known as "La Barbie" who leads one of the two factions fighting over control of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

-Associated Press

Mexican governor candidate killed, cartels blamed

Caption: Army soldiers stand next to a campaign vehicle of the candidate for governor of the state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre, after he was ambushed by unidentified gunmen near the city of Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, Monday June 28, 2010. Gunmen assassinated the front-running candidate and several of his aides in what Mexico's President Felipe Calderon called an attempt by drug gangs to sway local and state elections this weekend.

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen assassinated the front-running candidate for governor of a Mexican border state Monday in what President Felipe Calderon called an attempt by drug gangs to sway local and state elections this weekend.

The assailants ambushed Rodolfo Torre's vehicle as he headed to the airport in Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, a state torn by a turf battle between two rival drug cartels. At least four other people traveling with him were killed.

"Today has proven that organized crime is a permanent threat and that we should close ranks to confront it and avoid more actions like the cowardly assassination that today has shaken the country," Calderon said in a televised speech. "We cannot and should not permit crime to impose its will or its perverse rules."

He warned that organized crime "wants to interfere in the decisions of citizens and in electoral processes."

Torre, of Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is the first gubernatorial candidate assassinated in Mexico in recent memory. He is the highest-ranking candidate killed since Luis Donaldo Colosio, also for the PRI, was gunned down while running for president in 1994.

The attack was the biggest setback yet for Sunday's elections in 12 states. Corruption scandals, threats and attacks on politicians have raised fears for months that Mexico's powerful drug cartels are buying off candidates they support and intimidating those they oppose.

Last month, gunmen killed Jose Guajardo Varela, a candidate for mayor of the Tamaulipas town of Valle Hermoso. Guajardo, of Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, had received warnings to drop his campaign.

Several parties, including the PAN, had said they could not find anyone to run for mayor in some towns in Tamaulipas and other border states because of drug gang intimidation.

In the worst corruption scandal of the election, Cancun mayor Gregorio Sanchez was arrested last month for alleged drug trafficking ties, forcing him to drop his campaign for governor of Quintana Roo state. Sanchez was charged with protecting two of Mexico's most brutal drug gangs, allegations he has dismissed as politically motivated.

Calderon's government did not say which gang was suspected in Torre's assassination or why he would be targeted.

Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has become a battleground between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men. Gangs have staged bold attacks on security forces, ambushing army patrols and setting up blockades near army garrisons.

Tamaulipas state election authorities met to decide whether to suspend the vote.

The PAN and the leftist Democratic Revolution Part, or PRD, said they would suspend campaigning by their own gubernatorial candidates in Tamaulipas, but PAN party leader Cesar Nava said he hoped the vote would go forward.

PRI national leader Beatriz Paredes also indicated she wanted the elections to take place, urging supporters to go the polls. "Nothing is going to intimidate us," she said in a statement.

Torre, 46, was heading to the airport to fly to the border city of Matamoros, where he planned to attend the closing campaign events of the PRI's mayoral candidate, said Tamaulipas state Gov. Eugenio Hernandez. Four people were wounded in the attack, including Torres's personal secretary, Hernandez told Radio Formula.

Television footage from the scene showed several vehicles and sheet-covered bodies along the side of the highway.

Torre, 46, held a significant lead in polls as candidate for a coalition comprising two small parties and the PRI, which has long governed Tamaulipas.

George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said the assassination would almost certainly keep many voters home, but he expected the situation would only benefit the PRI.

"The execution and the ... climate of fear will dampen voter turnout on Sunday, which will help the PRI because they have the best political machine," he said.

The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000, is hoping that a strong showing in Sunday's elections will put it on the path to regain the presidency in 2012.

The conservative PAN has formed uncomfortable alliances with the PRD to oust the PRI from several states, though not in Tamaulipas. PAN and PRD politicians have insinuated that PRI politicians in Tamaulipas and other states have ties to drug gangs, allegations the PRI dismisses as tired campaign tactics.

Drug gang violence has rocketed since Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police across the country in 2006 to wage an all-out battle against cartels. Some 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

Torre, a physician, had served as the state's health secretary from 2005 to 2009. He was married and had three teenage children.

-Associated Press

Mexico nabs alleged Sinaloa cartel leader

TIJUANA, Mexico - Police in the border city of Mexicali have arrested a purported top figure in Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, authorities said Friday.

Baja California state police arrested Manuel Garibay on Thursday while he was driving in Mexicali, across from Calexico, Calif., the state public security department said in a statement.

Garibay, 52, was the Sinaloa cartel's link to Colombian cocaine suppliers since last year's arrest of Vicente "El Vicentillo" Zambada, the department said.

Zambada's father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, is one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel together with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to authorities.

Garibay was being sought by authorities for trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, and for being involved in several kidnappings and killings, it said.

Garibay allegedly led a cell of at least 28 cartel members including his brother, Jose Luis Garibay, who was arrested in Mexicali in 2005.

Meanwhile, in the border state of Tamaulipas, at least 11 gunmen died in three separate clashes with Mexican navy and army troops.

The navy said in a statement that six gunmen died Thursday in two shootouts in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Another five gunmen died after clashing with soldiers late Thursday in Ciudad Mier, which is also in Tamaulipas, the Mexican army said in a separate statement.

Also Friday, the government rejected conclusions of the National Human Rights Commission that soldiers altered the crime scene after an April 3 shootout in Tamaulipas that killed two young children.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont denied that the scene was altered.

The government says the children, 5 and 9 years old, were caught with their family in the crossfire between soldiers and drug traffickers while driving on a highway. The commission investigation said soldiers fired directly into the car, then changed the configuration of the scene to make it appear the vehicle was hit by crossfire. The commission also said Mexico's defense department should compensate the family of the children.

In the northern state of Coahuila, meanwhile, gunmen shot at a television state Friday but nobody was hurt.

Local Televisa network news director Felipe Perez confirmed the attack in a phone interview with The Associated Press. There were no arrests.

It was the second attack on the news media this week in the city of Torreon. On Tuesday, a pregnant woman was wounded when armed men shot at the offices of Noticias de El Sol de la Laguna newspaper.

More than 23,000 people have been killed by drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon began deploying thousands of troops and federal police to drug hot spots.

Mexican officials attribute much of the bloodshed to turf battles between drug cartels, but the gangs are increasingly turning to attacks on police and prosecutors.

-Associated Press

Gunmen fire on Mexican town hall; kill 3 police

MEXICO CITY - Authorities in northern Mexico say assailants sprayed a town hall with gunfire, killing at least three police officers.

The Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office says police found 200 shell casings from assault and semiautomatic rifles outside the Los Herreras municipal office, which also houses the town's police force.

Such weapons are often used by drug cartel hitmen. Prosecutors said Tuesday a vehicle found at the scene had "Z-40" and "Z'' painted on its windows — apparent references to the Zetas drug gang.

Authorities blame fighting between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas for a recent surge in violence in Nuevo Leon, which is close to Mexico's border with Texas.

The attack happened around midnight Monday.

-Associated Press

Catholic Church warns of cartel control in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Roman Catholic Church says drug cartels now control parts of some cities and warns that the gangs may be trying to influence this year's state elections.

The Archdiocese of Mexico says in an editorial that organized crime groups may try "to impose candidates" in the July 4 elections that will decide 12 of Mexico's 31 governorships.

It says cartels may also try to impede voters from going to the polls.

The editorial posted Sunday on the archdiocese's website says drug gangs are intimidating governments in some states and "control entire neighborhoods in some cities."

More than 22,700 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexico launched an anti-drug offensive in late 2006.

Cancun police find 12 decomposing inside caverns

Caption: Mexican Army soldiers secure a dirt road after bodies were found nearby in several sinkholes in the resort city of Cancun, Mexico Friday June 18. Police in Cancun have found 12 decomposing bodies in four sinkholes and were searching for more, authorities said, adding that they were led to the clandestine graves by nine alleged hit men detained last Tuesday.

CANCUN, Mexico - Police in Cancun found 12 decomposing bodies in four caverns and were searching for more cadavers in violence blamed on drug gangs in the popular resort city, officials said Friday.

Earlier this month, police discovered six other bodies, three of them cut open and their hearts removed, in a similar cavern near the Mexican resort. Three of the bodies had the letter "Z'' carved on their abdomens - a possible reference to the Zeta drug gang.

Police say detained gunmen have led them to all the clandestine graves — dried up sinkhole caves, known as cenotes.

Quintana Roo state Attorney General Francisco Alor said Friday that nine alleged hit men detained three days earlier led police to the 12 bodies.

Alor said three of the sinkholes are in an area covered with scrub vegetation near a residential area and the fourth on the outskirts of Cancun along a highway leading to Merida. None of the bodies have been identified.

Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, is a transshipment point for cocaine being smuggled from Colombia to the United States.

In 2009, prosecutors arrested Cancun's police chief, Francisco Velasco, to investigate whether he protected the Zetas drug gang. A former governor of the state was sentenced to 36 years for money laundering and helping a cartel smuggle narcotics.

More than 22,700 people have died nationwide in drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon sent soldiers and federal police to battle the cartels.

Cartel hit men have been know to use mass dumping sites to dispose of their victims. In late May, police in the colonial tourist town of Taxco discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned silver mine.

Meanwhile, Mexican soldiers seized more than $1 million in cash from a house in a northern state that is the home base of the country's most powerful cartel, authorities said Friday.

Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip raided three houses Thursday in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, the Defense Department said in a statement.

They found $1 million in cash, four guns and $80 in fake cash in the first house, the department said. In a second, they discovered $28,400, cocaine, a gun, expensive watches and other jewelry. Drugs were found in the third house.

The department did not say what cartel might have owned the money. There were no arrests.

Sinaloa state is a stronghold of the cartel with the same name, led by kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, two 15-year-old girls were among 15 people killed in a 24-hour period, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office.

The girls were riding in a car with three men Thursday night when assailants opened fire. The girls were killed inside the car, while the men tried to flee and were shot dead on the street, Sandoval said.

Police had no immediate suspects.

Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the deadliest cities in the world because of a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

-Associated Press

Mexican army seizes $1 million in cash from house

MEXICO CITY - Mexican soldiers seized more than $1 million in cash from a house in a northern state that is the home base of the country's most powerful cartel, authorities said Friday.

Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip raided three houses Thursday in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, the Defense Department said in a statement.

They found $1 million in cash, four guns and $80 in fake cash in the first house, the department said. In a second, they discovered $28,400, cocaine, a gun, expensive watches and other jewelry. Drugs were found in the third house.

The department did not say what cartel might have owned the money. There were no arrests.

Sinaloa state is a stronghold of the cartel with the same name, led by kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, two 15-year-old girls were among 15 people killed in a 24-hour period, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office.

The girls were riding in a car with three men Thursday night when assailants opened fire. The girls were killed inside the car, while the men tried to flee and were shot dead on the street, Sandoval said.

More than 20 bullet casings were found at the scene, some belonging to Kalashnikovs and AR-15 assault rifles.

Police had no immediate suspects.

Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the deadliest cities in the world. Daily homicide tolls in the double digits are common.

The city has been besieged by a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

-Associated Press

Mexico arrests 2 in ambush that killed 12 police

Caption: Federal police guard suspects Alain Escutia Ramos, known as "El Leon," left, and Emilio Ovet Palacios, know as "El Mostro," alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia Michoacana," during a presentation to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, June 17. According to federal police, both men were arrested in Michoacan, and are accused of participating in an ambush which killed 12 Mexican federal policemen earlier in the week.

MEXICO CITY - Two men were arrested for allegedly participating in an ambush that killed 12 federal police officers in one of the worst drug-cartel attacks on Mexican government security forces, authorities said Thursday.

The suspects, Alain Escutia, 20, and Emilio Palacios, 22, belong to La Familia, one of Mexico's newest and most brutal cartels, said Ramon Pequeno, chief of the Federal Police's anti-narcotics division.

He said the two confessed to participating in the ambush Monday in Zitacuaro, a town in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, La Familia's home base.

Investigators believe reputed kingpin Nazario Moreno ordered the ambush in retaliation for recent arrests of La Familia members, Pequeno said.

He said a cartel lieutenant met Monday with 35 gunmen at a gas station. The gunmen divided into two groups and headed for two bridges where they waited for the federal police patrol to pass. Pequeno said the two suspects were among a group of 26 who took position on one of the bridges, armed with high-caliber assault rifles and grenades.

They fired at the police patrol for nearly 30 minutes, he said. The police fired back, killing one of the gunmen and wounding several others. The gang members fled before police reinforcements arrived.

Pequeno said police learned the details from several days of intelligence work, although he did not elaborate.

Escutia and Palacios were arrested Wednesday in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. Pequeno said police arrested the pair because they had "a suspicious demeanor" and their clothes were dirty. He said they were carrying large backpacks in which police later found two assault rifles, a handgun and ammunition.

The suspects were paraded before the news media Thursday, a common practice of Mexican security forces that has been criticized by human rights groups.

-Associated Press

Calderon defends drug war, many Mexicans skeptical

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen slaughter 19 men at a rehab clinic. Sixteen bodies are dumped in a northern city. Twelve police officers die in an ambush. Soldiers kill 15 gunmen outside a tourist town.

All this in less than a week, yet President Felipe Calderon believes Mexico is getting a bad rap and wants to hire a public relations firm to improve its image. He might want to start with convincing his own countrymen, who are frustrated by assurances that the drug war is going well.

"No matter how much the authorities want us to believe that they are winning this fight, the reality and the perception is that, on the contrary, it's a lost battle," said Miguel Jimenez, 21, a student in Morelia, the capital of Calderon's drug-plagued home state of Michoacan. "Day after day, it's demonstrated with the increasing violence."

Calderon passionately defended his military-led offensive against cartels this week, pledging not to withdraw the thousands of soldiers and federal police battling gangs across the country.

He acknowledged violence has surged — often claiming innocent lives — but insisted it was a war worth fighting and that things are going as planned.

"The strategy is advancing in the necessary direction that was established from the start," Calderon wrote in a long essay posted on his office's website this week. "Some analysts say that it was a mistake to fight crime, that we should not have 'provoked' them. I think this perspective is mistaken."

Calderon said cartels are infiltrating every walk of Mexican life, from police and politics to businesses cowered by extortion demands. He insisted there is no choice but to fight them. If there is more violence, he said, it is because drug cartels are reeling and splintered. And his government is embarking on long-term solutions, including U.S.-backed training of thousands of police and prosecutors in modern investigative techniques.

Some Mexicans agree.

The essay "was received with skepticism among commentators in the press and radio, where it has been commonly accepted that the strategy has failed," wrote columnist Hector Aguilar in the Milenio newspaper Wednesday. But "among the critics, there is nobody proposing an alternative to Calderon's strategy."

But others are tired of hearing the same arguments from the president and seeing little difference on the ground.

"How long is Calderon going to believe that this war will be won or lost by sacrificing lives?" wrote Milenio columnist Ciro Gomez. "Or, as he said last night, that things will change in the medium term?"

The problem is the sacrifice is proving too much for many Mexicans who get caught in the crossfire.

In the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo on Tuesday, soldiers chased down a group of gunmen who opened fire on their patrol. The gunmen crashed their car into a house where a woman was looking after her three grandchildren. A battle erupted, leaving one soldier and four of the gunmen dead. The grandmother and the children escaped unharmed.

Bernardo Carrizales, the youngsters' father, watched in horror from his house across the street.

"When I saw the crash, I ran to get my children but the soldiers wouldn't let me through and I was screaming because they were shooting at the house," Carrizales said. "Later, they let me through and I saw my mother splattered with (someone else's) blood and my three children behind her."

That wasn't the worst shootout Tuesday. In the picturesque tourist town of Taxco, south of Mexico City, soldiers battled suspected cartel members holed up in a house, leaving 15 of the gunmen dead and forcing residents to cower in their homes.

Farther west in Nayarit state, Gov. Ney Gonzalez ordered schools to close early this year because of rising violence, including shootings that killed 30 people in the Pacific coast state over the weekend. He said children should be home so parents "won't fret and worry about what is happening on the streets while the governor imposes order."

The bloodshed continued Wednesday: In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, four men and two women were shot to death as they left a drug rehab center. In another northern town, Apodaca, the tortured bodies of four police officers and one ex-cop were dumped in public. Threatening messaged had been impaled on their bodies with knives.

Critics see a disconnect between what's happening on the streets and Calderon's rhetoric.

While soldiers fought in Taxco, Calderon was in Southern Baja California to inaugurate a hotel. He announced a plan to hire a public relations firm "to demonstrate what our country has to offer, which is a lot, to any visitor of the world."

"His political nose has been compromised," said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. "They would like to improve their image but it's not within their control."

Part of the problem is that it's hard to keep up with each horrific tragedy.

Last week, Calderon met with the family of two young children killed two months ago in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. The military said they were caught in the crossfire between soldiers and gunmen, a claim disputed by the family and the National Human Rights Commission.

Calderon's office issued a short statement on the meeting with the family, but it was largely ignored.

By that time, Calderon was being criticized for going to South Africa for the World Cup in the midst of a crisis over the shooting death of a 15-year-old Mexican boy by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Reforma newspaper published a political cartoon of Calderon running up the stairs of a South Africa-bound plane wearing a sombrero and shouting, "There are priorities!"

By the time Calderon arrived in South Africa, Mexico was reeling from two new horrors: a raid on a drug rehab clinic that left 19 people dead in northern Chihuahua City, and the bodies of 16 people found dumped in northeastearn Ciudad Madero. Calderon issued a statement condemning the rehab shooting.

Critics were not impressed.

"Calderon lives 'off side,'" wrote Arnoldo Kraus, using a football reference in a Jornada newspaper editorial Wednesday that criticized the trip.

"The problem is he doesn't know it."

-Associated Press

Mexico rights agency: Army covered up kids' deaths

MEXICO CITY - Mexican soldiers shot two children in April in their family's vehicle, and apparently altered the crime scene to try to blame the deaths on drug cartel gunmen, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said Wednesday.

The conclusions of the governmental commission represent one of the strongest condemnations to date of the Mexican army.

While soldiers have frequently been accused of human rights abuses since the army took on a leading role in fighting drug cartels in late 2006, the report suggests the military also engaged in an elaborate cover-up in the deaths of the boys, aged 5 and 9.

The Defense Department press office said it had no immediate comment.

After the boys' mother said soldiers shot her sons with rifles, the army said in late April that its own study concluded the boys were killed by fragments from a self-propelled grenade of a type it doesn't use.

The rights commission's president, Raul Plascencia, said the Defense Department's study "is unfounded and does not agree with the evidence."

Thirteen members of the family were traveling in the vehicle April 3 in an area where the Defense Department said soldiers were pursing a convoy of gunmen in the northern state of Tamaulipas. It said the family got caught in crossfire during the confrontation, in which five other members of the family were wounded.

Plascencia said the evidence suggests additional rounds were later fired into the family's vehicle to make it look more like a crossfire incident. The army — which immediately took charge of the scene of the shooting — also apparently planted two vehicles at the scene that witness said had not been there at the time of the shooting, he said.

The evidence suggests "an arbitrary use of public force," Plascencia said.

The commission formally recommended that authorities reinvestigate the case, punish those responsible and submit soldiers to periodic psychological tests. The recommendations are not binding.

Tamaulipas has been the scene of bloody battles between drug cartels and security forces. Such violence has cost more than 23,000 lives nationwide since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched an offensive against the cartels.

Calderon has said the army is putting greater attention on ensuring troops respect human rights. But critics say the army should not be involved in law enforcement tasks and complain the current system allows soldiers to be investigated and tried in military courts, rather than civilian ones.

Plascencia said the commission has received 34 complaints of military abuses of civilians so far in 2010.

-Associated Press

US seeks to extend anti-drug aid plan for Mexico

WASHINGTON - The State Department has requested extension of a plan that promised $1.1 billion to help fight drug cartel violence in Mexico, which is undergoing one of the bloodiest months in recent history.

In a report submitted to Congress this week, department officials ask that the Merida Initiative be extended past 2012. The report calls for the strengthening of public institutions, support for local and state governments and a renewed effort to fight drug, weapon and money trafficking in the U.S., according to a copy of the document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton already has requested $292 million in anti-drug aid for Mexico for 2011.

Anthony Placido, the Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence chief, said last month that he worries Mexico's next president will not continue the unrelenting war on drugs that President Felipe Calderon launched when he took office in late 2006. That war has claimed nearly 23,000 lives.

Presidential elections are scheduled for 2012.

The Merida Initiative was created by former President George W. Bush in 2007. While the U.S. pledged $1.1 billion in aid, an AP investigation showed only $161 million of that money has been spent so far.

-Associated Press

Texas police chief granted bond on drug charges

McALLEN - A federal court granted bond to a south Texas police chief arrested last week on drug trafficking charges, but prohibited him from law enforcement activities, confined him to his home and shared few details of his alleged role in the scheme Tuesday.

Sullivan City Police Chief Hernan Guerra Jr. was arrested as part of a nationwide sweep dubbed Project Deliverance targeting the transportation and distribution arms of Mexican drug-trafficking gangs. The 22-month investigation, announced last week, involved the arrest of more than 2,200 individuals.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby set Guerra's bond at $100,000 Tuesday and said he would be eligible for release Wednesday after federal pre-trial services officers visit his home.

"The alleged role of Mr. Guerra is very troubling," Ormsby said, without revealing details. Ormsby noted that as a police chief, Guerra was in a position of trust and "allegedly was using that position in furtherance of this activity."

Guerra faces charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of marijuana. He has been police chief in the small community west of McAllen since 2004.

Guerra was one of 28 co-defendants in an indictment alleging that, beginning in June 2009, they conspired to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. The specific possession counts cited in the indictment total 1,199 kilograms, or more than 2,600 pounds of marijuana.

Ormsby said Guerra was alleged to have played a "significant role" in a large-scale and sophisticated drug trafficking organization.

Oscar Alvarez, Guerra's attorney, said after Tuesday's detention hearing that the charges were serious, but he had not yet seen evidence to support to support them. Guerra pleaded not guilty Tuesday.

Guerra was suspended by the city, Alvarez said.

"He certainly doesn't want a cloud over the police department while this matter is being litigated," Alvarez said. Even if Guerra is cleared, the stigma of the charge will persist. "I think my client is pretty much resigned to the fact that it will be very difficult for him to go back into law enforcement in the future."

On Monday, Ormsby denied bond for Javier Francisco Pena Jr., one of Guerra' co-defendants. Pena allegedly acted as a scout for the drug trafficking ring and was found with night-vision goggles, two-way radios and multiple cell phones.

The organization moved significant quantities of marijuana across the Rio Grande in the Sullivan City area with a high-degree of accuracy, said federal prosecutor Patricia Profit, giving a hint of how Guerra ties into the case.

Pena apparently was already on bond from a state drug charge when picked up for the federal case, Profit said. Investigators also have evidence Pena was connected to the use of road spikes to stop pursuing authorities. The spikes, which are usually multi-pointed clusters of nails welded together, have been a growing problem for Border Patrol.

-Associated Press

29 inmates killed in Mexico prison clashes

MEXICO CITY - At least 29 inmates were killed Monday as rival gangs clashed inside a prison in a cartel-plagued Mexican state, authorities said. Three policemen guarding the prison were wounded.

In one attack, 20 inmates were shot to death when a group of prisoners opened fire on members of a rival gang inside the prison in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, state Public Safety Secretary Josefina Garcia told Radio Formula. One of the three wounded police was in serious condition, Garcia said.

The gang that initiated the attack killed 17 rivals and lost three of its own members.

An inmate who was wounded died later Monday at a hospital, said Martin Gastelum, a spokesman for the Sinaloa state prosecutors' office. He didn't say which gang the prisoner belong to.

The lockup in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan was quickly brought under control and investigators found two pistols and an assault rifle inside, Gastelum said.

Gastelum said the killings were all at the hands of other prisoners.

Local media said those attacked were apparently members of the Zetas drug gang, which is battling the powerful Sinaloa cartel, but officials were unable to confirm that.

Hours later, eight more prisoners were stabbed to death by other inmates, said state Public Safety Department spokeswoman Angeles Moreno. She said police are investigating what sparked the violence.

Many of Mexico's most powerful drug traffickers hail from Sinaloa, a key smuggling corridor and cultivation area for marijuana and opiates. The northwestern state, and Mazatlan in particular, are rife with turf battles among drug gangs.

Mexico's drug gangs frequently try to break their members out of prison, by staging attacks from the outside or buying off prison officials. But there was no immediate confirmation Monday's shootings involved a prison-break attempt.

-Associated Press

10 Mexican federal police killed in attack

MEXICO CITY - Ten federal police officers were killed Monday after being attacked by unidentified gunmen near a vocational high school in western Mexico.

The officers were returning from a patrol when they came under fire from the gang in the city of Zitacuaro in western Michoacan state, the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement.

An unspecified number of officers were wounded in the attack and were taken to hospitals in Mexico City and the Michoacan state capital, Morelia, for treatment, the statement said. Several assailants were also killed or wounded, but officials did not provide an exact number.

Brutal drug-gang violence has swept Michoacan, a state known for its picturesque colonial capital, beaches and Monarch butterfly sanctuary. The state is a stronghold of La Familia, a cartel known for beheading its rivals and staging bold attacks on government security forces.

Police did not immediately identify the attackers or indicate whether they are suspected of being gunmen for La Familia cartel. But the Public Safety Department did say the assailants picked up their wounded and dead and fled with them, a tactic often used by Mexico's drug cartels.

Michoacan cartel gunmen have been known for staging violent attacks on law enforcement personnel in the past: In 2009, the bloodied and tortured bodies of 12 federal agents were found dumped along a highway in Michoacan in one of the worst single attacks against government forces.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning urging U.S. citizens "to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Michoacan."

Nationwide, more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug violence since the government began its offensive against cartels in late 2006.

-Associated Press

Mexican reporters on gov't tourism trip kidnapped

MORELIA, Mexico - A government media tour to promote tourism in southwestern Mexico went awry when machete-wielding Indians briefly kidnapped 13 reporters on the trip, officials said Sunday. Fifteen people trying to film a beer commercial were also abducted.

Nobody was harmed during the abductions Saturday, said a Michoacan state government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media. Government officials were still negotiating Sunday to recover the cameras and other media equipment stolen by the Nahua Indians.

The indigenous communal landowners were upset that Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona beer, had not asked their permission to film the commercial on their property, said the official.

They first kidnapped the Mexican reporters after mistaking them for the Grupo Modelo team, the official said. The Nahua Indians released the journalists after about three hours, then kidnapped the Grupo Modelo filmmakers who arrived in the area later. They too were released after several hours.

Passions run high over territorial issues in rural pockets of Mexico, particularly in indigenous communities. Last month, gunmen opened fire on a group of European and Mexican rights activists, journalists and teachers union representatives who were attempting to reach a Triqui Indian village in central Mexico besieged by rival political factions. Two activists from Finland and Mexico were killed.

The Nahua Indians, holding machetes, confronted the journalists Saturday afternoon on a coastal highway between the port city of Lazaro Cardenas and the town of Aquila, said Alejandro Saldana Ortiz, the deputy director of the local Quadratin newspaper, which had a reporter on the trip. Two government officials were also among the group.

The reporters, cameramen and photographers had just finished a boat trip, part of a tour meant to highlight the sparkling Michoacan coastline, Saldana said. The indigenous group questioned the journalists and two government officials for several hours about whether they belonged to the Grupo Modelo team, he said. They were all released unharmed but the Indians refused to return cameras and other equipment.

Phones rang unanswered Sunday at the offices of Grupo Modelo.

Brutal drug gang violence has hurt tourism in Michoacan, a state known for its picturesque colonial capital, beaches and Monarch butterfly sanctuary.

The state is a stronghold of La Familia, a cartel known for beheading its rivals and staging bold attacks government security forces.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning urging U.S. citizens "to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Michoacan."

-Associated Press

19 slain at Mexico rehab clinic, 20 in second city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - At least 30 gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation center in a Mexican border state capital and opened fire, killing 19 men and wounding four people, police said. Gunmen also killed 20 people in another drug-plagued northern city.

The killings marked one of the bloodiest weeks ever in Mexico and came just weeks after authorities discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned silver mine, presumably victims of the country's drug violence.

The bullet-riddled bodies of 18 men and two women were found Friday in five different parts of Ciudad Madero, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where violence has surged this year amid a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Police had no information on suspects.

It was the deadliest day in Tamaulipas drug violence since 18 gunmen were killed during a series of coordinated attacks on soldiers in April.

Another round of killings occurred late Thursday at the Faith and Life center in Chihuahua city, about 210 miles south of Ciudad Juarez and the border with El Paso, Texas, state police spokesman Fidel Banuelos said.

A day earlier unidentified assailants killed one man and wounded another at a rehab center in Ciudad Juarez, which has become one of the world's most deadly cities because of drug violence.

More than 60 people have died in mass shootings at rehab clinics in a little less than two years. Police have said two of Mexico's six major drug cartels are exploiting the centers to recruit hit men and drug smugglers, often threatening to kill those who don't cooperate. Others are killed for failing to pay for drugs or betraying a dealer.

The men at the Faith and Life center were roused out of bed shortly before 11 p.m. and placed face-down along a hallway, the center's director, Cristian Rey Ramirez, told The Associated Press.

Ramirez was alerted to the attack by a telephone call from the center's pastor.

"He tells me, 'You know what, come here because they just killed everyone,'" Rey said. "There was no warning."

The attackers left messages accusing the victims of being criminals, Banuelos said.

Four other people were hospitalized, two in critical condition and two in serious condition, officials said.

Most of the victims ranged in age from 30 to 40, with some older, and included a blind man, said the Rev. Rene Castillo, a minister who gives weekly sermons at the center, which opened 11 years ago.

"Everyone is so scared now," he said. Violence is "all everyone talks about, especially with all the threats that have been made," he said.

It was the first such attack on the center, although two men and a woman were kidnapped there in April 2008 while attending a memorial service, Banuelos said.

The three-story, baby-blue concrete building houses addicts for 90 days, although some of those attacked had been there for up to two years, Castillo said.

Among the victims was Jose Luis Zamarron Barraza, a heroin addict who arrived home a year ago from the U.S., said a relative who declined to give her name out of fear. She did not know Zamarron's age.

He entered the center a year ago, she said.

"The only crime he committed was to use drugs and want to get clean," she said. "He was really happy because he was about to leave. ... He almost made it."

President Felipe Calderon, whose war with drug cartels has seen nearly 23,000 people killed since he took office in late 2006, issued a statement condemning the shootings.

"They are outrageous acts that reinforce the conviction of the need to fight criminal groups who carry out such barbaric acts with full legal force," he said.

The federal government promised in February to invest $7.7 million in rehab centers and related programs in Ciudad Juarez. But plans for Mexico's first government-run drug rehab center have stalled for unknown reasons.

The government did open two small offices in Ciudad Juarez two months ago that provide counseling and prevention services.

Chihuahua state Health Secretary Octavio Martinez Perez said the Faith and Life center had a license and regularly met all state requirements.

"It is regrettable and tragic," he said.

In other presumably drug-related violence, authorities discovered three bodies, one of which had been decapitated, in the Pacific Coast state of Guerrero on Thursday and Friday.

One of the bodies was found Friday in the town of Iguala accompanied by a note. Police did not reveal what it said.

A second body was found Thursday in the town of Tecoanapa leaning against a cement post, its head placed between its knees, police said. Attached to that body was a message written on cardboard whose contents authorities declined to release.

The third body was found Thursday with signs of torture in Taxco, a colonial-era tourist town known for its silver jewelry. In late May, authorities discovered a mass grave in an abandoned silver mine on the outskirts of Taxco that had become a dumping ground for apparent victims of Mexico's drug violence. Authorities found 55 bodies before ending their search last weekend.

Also in Guerrero, two gunmen died Thursday after attacking a military convoy while two brothers, including a 16-year-old boy, died Friday during an ambush. No further details were available.

-Associated Press

Suspected US-born drug smuggler charged in Atlanta

ATLANTA - A Texas-born man suspected of leading a Mexican drug cartel was charged Friday in federal court in Atlanta with distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who is known as "La Barbie," and five others were charged with conspiring to import and distribute cocaine and plotting to launder money. Authorities are offering a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to Villarreal's capture.

Authorities say Villarreal has become one of Mexico's most elusive drug kingpins, and the 36-year-old's mystique has grown partly because he was born in Laredo, Texas. Rodney Benson, the special agent in charge of Atlanta's Drug Enforcement Administration office, said the case "strikes directly at the core of Mexican drug cartel leadership."

Villarreal belonged to the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico before one of its leaders split and established his own cartel, according to the indictment. Authorities say he is now battling for control and Mexican authorities have found decapitated and mangled bodies they believe are victims of the ongoing fight.

Prosecutors say they used a federal wiretap of a related case in Atlanta in January 2008 to identify Villarreal as the source of thousands of kilograms of cocaine that were imported into the U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

Witnesses said that some truckloads traveling from Laredo to Atlanta carried more than 650 pounds of cocaine. The workers shipped truckloads of money, often containing several million dollars in cash, back to Mexico in the tractor-trailer trucks, according to the court records.

Also charged in the indictment are: Carlos Montemayor, 37; Juan Montemayor, 45; Ruben Hernandez, 38; and Roberto Lopez, 31. Those four, along with Villarreal, are believed to be in Mexico. A fifth defendant, Jesus Ramos, has been arrested and arraigned in federal court in Atlanta and his charges are pending.

Along with Villarreal, authorities say Hernandez and Lopez are also U.S. citizens.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said the indictment is proof that federal prosecutors "are not content simply to arrest and prosecute those in our district who work on behalf of the Mexican cartels to bring cocaine into the United States."

-Associated Press