Two U.S. brothers jailed on homicide charges in a notoriously violent state penitentiary in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico were beaten to death by a group of fellow inmates, investigators said Thursday.Officers at the CERESO II prison discovered the bodies of Jose Manuel Contreras, 25, and his 31-year-old brother Jorge, who were killed by other prisoners Wednesday night, said Oscar Maldonado, a representative of the attorney general's office in Tamaulipas state, which includes Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.State and local police descended on the prison to investigate the crime scene, but released few details, saying only that a group of prisoners entered the brothers' cell and killed them before making off with some of their belongings.
Blanca Contreras, the victims' sister, said in an interview that the pair were born across the bridge in Laredo, but spent much of their time in Mexico. She said they had received death threats in prison, though the reason why other prisoners were out to get them was unclear.Authorities said Jorge Manuel was awaiting homicide in the killings of four people in Nuevo Laredo in 1999. His younger brother had also been charged with homicide, but the circumstances surrounding the crime he is believed to have committed were unclear.The Contreras brothers are the fourth and fifth victims to be killed inside CERESO II so far this year and federal and state agents have kept watch over its exterior in recent weeks.On March 27, soldiers and federal and state police surrounded the facility to quell a riot that killed one inmate. Two other inmates were stabbed to death a day later, just as authorities were beginning to search the facility for weapons.