NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) – A shootout before dawn Sunday in this border city left three people dead, the latest victims of a string of apparently drug-related killings in Mexico.
State police commander Alberto del Angel Hernandez said officials were interviewing witnesses and the victims’ family members to determine who was behind the shootout.
Nuevo Laredo has been the site of several recent drug turf battles. Federal officials have said deserters from an elite Mexican army unit who formed a drug gang have been fighting for control of the border town.
In other drug-related violence, federal officials found the bodies of three men Saturday who had been killed and buried in the backyard of a home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.
In a statement released late Saturday, the federal Attorney General’s office said it believes the home belonged to a member of the Juarez cartel, led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.
The bodies were discovered buried under a tent set up in the backyard of the home, and at least one of the victims appeared to have been tortured, the statement said.
Police said they also discovered a marijuana press, blood and handcuffs at the house.
On Friday, a shootout between local police and several presumed drug traffickers in the northern city of Anahuac, 50 miles southwest of Nuevo Laredo, left two state police officers and another person dead.
On Thursday, former Deputy State Attorney General Rogelio Delgado was shot to death in Tijuana along with his two bodyguards and a friend.