| GEO World | | 30 dead in brutal Mexico violence | Updated at: 0703 PST, Wednesday, July 15, 2009
CIUDAD JUAREZ: An armed gang shot dead a mayor in northern Mexico, capping a vicious 48-hour period that has seen 30 people killed, including 12 police officers in the west of the country, officials said Tuesday.
Hector Ariel Meixueiro, who was mayor of Namiquipa in northwestern Chihuahua state near the US border, was shot multiple times after being accosted Tuesday morning by at least 15 men carrying assault rifles, according to the state prosecutors office.
Earlier Tuesday a spokesman for Mexico's public security ministry said the bodies of 12 federal police officers were found along a road in the western state of Michoacan.
The bodies of 11 men and one woman, who had been undertaking investigative work in the area, were found stacked on top of each other and bore signs torture, said police spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido.
Officials have attributed the killings to the powerful "La Familia" drug cartel that operates in the region and considered one of the most violent criminal gangs in Mexico. |  |
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