More Deaths Tied to Drug Turf War
MEXICO CITY — Twelve people believed linked to drug gangs were found slain in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa, officials said Tuesday.
The bodies, all apparently shot at close range, turned up along an 80-mile stretch of highway between the state capital, Culiacan, and the beach resort of Mazatlan.
The first group consisted of three men shot to death with assault rifles. They were found late Monday in a car on a roadside just north of Mazatlan.
A truck driver apparently passing by was wounded by a stray bullet, the Sinaloa state attorney general’s office said.
Two more men were found shot to death on a roadside near Culiacan early Tuesday. One was identified as Carlos Tirado Lizarraga, alias “El Carlillos,” allegedly a top enforcer for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Along the same highway later Tuesday, police found five more bodies in a Lincoln Navigator, which had apparently been armored, and two more bodies were found just a few yards away.
Authorities have said the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in alliance with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, has been waging bloody turf battles with the allied Gulf and Tijuana drug cartels.
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