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| Six Mexican prison workers shot to death |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/21/2005 |
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Six prison workers were shot to death and left outside the high-security prison in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, following a federal crackdown against drug gangs at lockups across the nation. Federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said organized crime figures were responsible for the killings and said that "war has been declared" in the struggle to quell drug vendettas in Mexican prisons. Soldiers guarded entrances to the Matamoros facility, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, Thursday after the six men were found riddled with bullets near the prison grounds. The killers apparently lay in wait for the men to exit the prison after they finished their work shifts early Thursday. Macedo de la Concha said "criminals, many of them in prison and others on the streets" were responsible, and that accused drug lord Osiel Cardenas -- who has allegedly been plotting to escape the maximum security La Palma prison -- may have been involved in Thursday's killings. Cardenas reputedly ran the Gulf cartel that controls the drug trade in Matamoros and nearby border cites. In a press statement, the Federal Public Safety Department called the killings of three prison technicians and three officers "an attempt to challenge the government." Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, who oversees domestic intelligence and political affairs, suggested the killings were linked to the crackdown at the La Palma prison, some of whose inmates were transferred this week to Matamoros. |
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