Gunmen shoot five in Mexico city on US border
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Gunmen shoot five in Mexico city on US border
Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:34 PM ET
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead five men in a vehicle workshop in this violent city on the U.S. border in a brutal resurgence of suspected drug violence, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Hitmen toting pistols surprised the five men late on Monday night at the workshop in Nuevo Laredo, which lies over the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, firing at least 15 shots at close range.
The city of 300,000 people is the front line of a war between traffickers from the western Mexican state of Sinaloa and the local Gulf cartel for control of the lucrative cross-border trade in cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
At least 175 people have been murdered in the city this year and President Vicente Fox sent in hundreds of federal troops and police in June to try to restore order.
The latest killings occurred in the city's Anahuac district, which is notorious for drug dealing, and ended an 11-day stretch without a fatal shooting.
Witnesses said one man was shot several times in the face, usually a coded message signifying betrayal in the language of the warring cartels. Another victim attempted to hide beneath a truck in the workshop, but was shot regardless.
Violence along Mexico's northern border has increased since Fox launched "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels and organized crime in January.
The U.S. State Department has issued several travel alerts for Nuevo Laredo this year, warning that drug-related violence was getting out of hand in border cities.
