HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Drug Traffickers' Feud In Mexico Leaves Five Dead
Pubdate: Wed, 13 Mar 2002
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited

DRUG TRAFFICKERS' FEUD IN MEXICO LEAVES FIVE DEAD

MEXICO CITY, March 12 (Reuters) - A gun fight between groups of drug 
dealers in Mexico's Tamaulipas state, bordering the United States, 
left five dead and three injured, a state official said on Tuesday.

The Tamaulipas state police department said the battle occurred after 
an armed group entered a neighborhood in border city Nuevo Laredo on 
Monday night, "only a few meters" from the frontier with the United 
States.

"The gun fight was between members of gangs involved in the sale of 
drugs," a police department official told Reuters.

"The confrontation was apparently the result of problems (between the 
gangs)," said the official.

The killers, who escaped in two trucks and three cars, were armed 
with AK-47 assault rifles commonly used in the Mexican drug trade.

Mexico is one of the world's main marijuana producers, and a major 
conduit for the transport of South American cocaine to the United 
States, the No. 1 international consumer of illicit drugs.

The Mexican government on Saturday captured Benjamin Arellano Felix, 
a leader of a violent drug cartel located in the frontier city of 
Tijuana, and one of the most-wanted suspects in the United states and 
in Mexico. The so-called Tijuana cartel is accused of smuggling large 
quantities of drugs to the United States.

The official said there was no information so far available linking 
Monday's deadly gun battle with the Arellano Felix arrest.
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