Drug gang gunfight leaves 10 dead, 18 injured in central-western Mexico

[News_Editor]

Drug gang gunfight leaves 10 dead, 18 injured in central-western Mexico

2010-12-12 05:16:18 GMT+7 (ICT)

MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) -- At least 10 people were killed and 18 were injured on Friday night in a gunfight between drug cartels in the central-western Mexican state of Jalisco, officials said on Saturday.

The incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. local time in the town of Tecalitlan, local police said, as a crowd of around 5,000 people were attending the religious festivities of the Lady of Guadalupe. The gunfight lasted around 30 minutes.

Eight of the people killed were found scattered through the area, while two others died in hospitals.

After the gunfight ended, city, state and federal police arrived to the town to protect the area. Later, state police secured 10 abandoned vehicles allegedly used by drug cartel members one kilometer (half mile) from the main square of the village.

The state of Jalisco borders the state of Michoacan, where on Thursday and Friday eleven people were killed during clashes between the "La Familia Michoacana" drug cartel and security forces, including the cartel's leader and founder Nazario "El Chayo" Moreno Gonzalez.

Moreno Gonzalez is the second top drug lord killed in the last months, after the killing on November 5 of Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, one of the leaders of the powerful Gulf Cartel, after a gunfight with the Mexican military in the northern border city of Matamoros.

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