Ten dead in Mexico’s drug wars

MEXICO CITY - Another ten deaths were credited to Mexico’s drug wars over the weekend, including four drug gang suspects killed in a chase by security forces in northern Mexico, according to media reports Sunday.

In Acapulco, the coastal holiday resort on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, police found the bodies of six young men at what they described as a “massacre” site.

The killings in northern Mexico’s Monterrey followed a chase by military patrols who wanted to inspect two suspicious vehicles. The occupants opened fire on the soldiers and tried to flee.

The four dead suspects were said to belong to the Los Zetas cartel. Several others managed to escape. The security officers found weapons and communications equipment in the vehicles, local media reported.

The shootings occurred as 13 so-called “narco blockades” were reported - street shut-downs across Monterrey enforced by the cartel with trucks, busses and other vehicles to impede passage by police and military vehicles.

Saturday morning, armed men overpowered residents of Monterrey at multiple places to commandeer their cars for the blockades.

Police in Acapulco found six dead at a massacre scene in a private home. The dead included men between 20 and 25 years old. A seventh victim survived the attack credited to a drug gang.

Since entering office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has escalated the war on drugs and deployed national security forces in the battle. An estimated 28,000 civilians have died in the ensuing clashes.