40 killed in drug-related Mexico violence

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Gunmen killed 18 people at a drug rehabilitation clinic in northern Mexico, lining them up
and executing them one-by-one, as a day-long surge in violence claimed at least 40 lives across the country.
Witnesses told police that the assault in the state of Chihuahua, carried out by four hooded assailants who
stormed the rehab clinic carrying automatic weapons.
They said the shooting lasted up to a quarter-hour, with as many as 100 bullets fired.
The witnesses said the (gunmen) fired on the addicts ... for between 10 and 15 minutes, one prosecutor told
the press.
The attack is the fifth and deadliest in the past year on drug rehabilitation centres.
Four shooting victims who survived the attack were taken to hospitals around the city amid an alert for possible
new gang attacks.
Wednesdays slaughter came after 21 people were killed in drug-related violence across Chihuahua, and after
the number-two security official in Calderons home state of Michoacan was gunned down.
Jose Manuel Revuelta had been barely two weeks on the job as deputy director of state security when he was
assassinated together with his two bodyguards in the state capital Morelia, a state official told AFP on condition
of anonymity.
The killing took place near Revueltas office, the official said without providing further details.
The gunmen were said to have intercepted Revueltas car in the southern part of Morelia, a city where the
notoriously ruthless La Familia drug cartel operates. They work in tandem with a group feared of paramilitaries
known as Los Zetas, a group made up of former Mexican soldiers.
Authorities blame La Familia for the deaths of 12 federal police intelligence agents whose bodies were
discovered dumped along a road in Michoacan in July.
The group made an ominous and dramatic debut in 2006 when members rolled five decapitated heads onto a
nightclub dance floor.
Violence has since been on the upswing, despite Calderon deploying thousands of soldiers and federal police
to Michoacan in what eventually marked the launch of a nationwide crackdown on drug cartel-driven violence.
Deadly attacks in Michoacan hit a new high after the July arrest of Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged top La Familia
operative suspected of managing synthetic drug production and shipping marijuana to the United States.
The killings in Chihuahua state overnight Tuesday to Wednesday included the gruesome find of a man who was
decapitated and dismembered.
The remains of the 20-year-old were dumped near a police station in central Ciudad Juarez late Tuesday, the
prosecutors office said.
Police nearby had found a threatening message signed by La Linea, a group belonging to the Carrillo Fuentes
drug cartel, said prosecutors.
Separately, a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on a Ciudad Juarez street, another two people were
gunned down in a city restaurant on Wednesday, and nine men were killed in other incidents, officials said.
Other violent deaths were reported across the state, including Nuevo Casas Grandes, some 200 kilometres
(124 miles) south of Ciudad Juarez, and in the state capital Ciudad Chihuahua.
More than 9,600 people have died in drug-related violence since 2008, despite Calderons deployment of some
36,000 troops and police across the country to try to stem the bloodshed.
In the first seven months of 2009, at least 1,161 murders took place in Ciudad Juarez, according to an AFP tally
based on police data.