Drug War Spurs Riot at Mexican Jail; 15 Killed

MATAMOROS, Mexico —  A battle between drug smugglers inside a federal prison escalated into a riot Friday night that left at least 15 people dead, U.S. officials in Texas said.

The Excelsior news agency in Mexico City said at least 13 people were killed and 11 injured in what it described as a shootout between two gangs of prisoners armed with everything from machine guns to knives.

It said bodies littered the entrance to the prison after the riot that started about 6:30 p.m.

In Texas, Cameron County officials stationed police on both international bridges to keep possible escapees from entering the United States, sheriff’s Lt. S.R. Garcia said.

The Mexican army called in an elite anti-terrorist group known as the Zorros, or Foxes, to quell the disturbance, Garcia said. He said the group was preparing to storm the jail late Friday.

The rioting apparently started when a prisoner shot and wounded alleged Colombian drug lord Oliverio Chavez Rodriguez, an inmate in the prison, Garcia said.

The inmate who shot Chavez, known only as German, was immediately killed and his body raised on a stick in the jail courtyard, Garcia said.

U.S. authorities last year said they thought Chavez was running a drug ring from inside the Matamoros prison with a cellular telephone.

Chavez was shot two or three times and was reported to be still alive, but medical authorities fear they will be killed if they enter the jail, Garcia said.

“The federal judicial commander has been in touch with us, and so far they’ve got about 15 to 17 dead inmates,” Garcia said.

German is supposedly the brother of William Botero, who was slain with his wife and two other Brownsville-area people this week in what local police described as a drug war. Brownsville is across the Rio Grande from Matamoros.

“I think a deal went sour and somebody went and said something,” Cameron County Sheriff Alex Perez said Thursday. “They’re killing each other off.”

Perez and Brownsville Police Chief Victor Rodriguez told the Brownsville Herald they believe that alleged rival drug kingpins--Chavez and Juan Garcia Abrego--were engaged in a turf battle in the Matamoros area.