Mexico car wash massacre: 15 dead
2010-10-27 22:06
Mexico City - A group of armed men killed 15 people on Wednesday at a car wash in the western Mexican state of Nayarit, a spokesperson for the state prosecutor said.
"Fifteen young people were assassinated this morning in a car wash in Tepic," the spokesperson told AFP, asking to remain anonymous.
Most of the victims were employed by the car wash, and were also recovering drug addicts, local media said.
It was the third such mass slaying in Mexico in only a few days, and Wednesday's attack was typical of recent assaults in the country's brutal drugs war as rival cartels slug it out for control of the drug trade.
More than 28 000 people have died in the conflict since President Felipe Calderon came to power in December 2006.
The latest carnage came after a string of blood letting across Mexico.
Thirteen recovering drug addicts were gunned down at a rehab centre in Tijuana late on Sunday. Near the resort city of Acapulco, six men were found executed on Sunday and three other bodies were found bound on Monday.
Drug violence has claimed more than 7 000 lives nationwide in 2010, making it the deadliest year since Calderon launched a war on drug cartels in 2006, dispatching more than 50 000 troops.
Mexico's border regions have witnessed much of the drug conflict as cartels battle over lucrative trafficking routes into the United States.
- SAPA
