Thread: Mexican military says it has slain 338 gangsters

Mexican military says it has slain 338 gangsters

That’s the figure for drug war near Texas border thus far in 2011.

By Dudley Althaus/dudley.althaus@chron.com
Published 12:05 a.m., Saturday, April 30, 2011

MEXICO CITY — Underscoring the region’s severe security crisis, this nation’s Defense Ministry reported that soldiers have either killed or recovered the bodies of 338 alleged gangland gunmen so far this year in the cities and ranchland towns near the South Texas border.

The tally was quietly released by the military district that includes metropolitan Monterrey and the adjoining states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi.

Soldiers also arrested 1,200 suspected gangsters, seized more than 2,000 rifles, 500 pistols, 450 grenades and 450,000 rounds of ammunition.

Many of the slain gunmen died in fighting between rival criminal bands, a military spokesman said. But scores more have died in skirmishes with the army. Five Mexican soldiers were killed in the area’s clashes this year, the military said.

The army “continues battling the criminal organizations at every level, in urban as well as rural areas,â€

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