Mexico Taxi Drivers Killed By Gunmen, 3 Bystanders Injured

Police check taxis following an attack on four taxi drivers in the San Bernabe neighbordhood of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico on February 8, 2012. (Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP/Getty Images)

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Gunmen killed eight cab drivers Tuesday in two attacks in the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico, officials said. Three people including an 8-year-old girl were injured.

Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano says four gunmen shot the first five drivers outside a taxi base office. Minutes later, three men were killed apparently by the same group a few blocks away.

Domene said two of the three people wounded in Tuesday's attacks were innocent bystanders, including the girl.

He said the victims were driving taxis without permits. Police are investigating a former driver who became enraged and threatened his co-workers when he was fired for selling drugs.

Also Tuesday, authorities in the western state of Michoacan said 13 men were killed.

Mexican soldiers shot four alleged criminals in an apparent kidnap rescue operation. And the state Attorney General's Office said three bound bodies were found on a highway, while six other bodies were scattered around the town of Tancitaro.

Prosecutors said the incidents were related. At both crime scenes, police found posters with messages signed by the New Generation drug gang, an ally of Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the resort city of Acapulco, police arrested three men who were the driver and passengers in an SUV with seven bodies, five of them decapitated.

Arturo Martinez, spokesman of Guerrero state, said Tuesday the three captured in the case are being investigated for ties with organized crime. He said some of the male victims had been mutilated.

Comments

[andycan]

09:41 AM on 04/12/2012

Drugs could not be smuggled into the US from Mexico without the massive collusion of US customs officers.

[Kenz300]

01:04 PM on 04/12/2012

Where are the Mexican customs officers on the Mexican side of the border?

I

[l monroe]

02:56 PM on 05/03/2012

busy running away from the AKs that were American made and Mexican modified into automatic weapons. It is tough when they are only given nine mill.

[ruckas356]

04:31 AM on 04/12/2012

the world is suffering from demons.... the light of god shines fully in the eyes of the darkest minded people no matter how horrid

[Patricia1111]

11:55 PM on 04/11/2012

Too bad that the thugs in Mexico that run the drug cartels and the other gang thugs don't see how they are destroying their own country. Mexico is beyond saving and I imagine if I lived there I would try and cross the border and flee into the United States.Unfortunately, some of the thugs get in here also and cause crime waves in our border states. Wonder how the decent people in Mexico can carry on in view of all the government corruption and horror crimes. We had to deal with the Italian Mafia, but we had an honest government that got them under control.

[Kenz300]

12:40 AM on 04/12/2012

Nothing will change until the people of Mexico demand change.

If the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya can their countries, so can the people of Mexico.

[K Jive]

03:38 AM on 04/12/2012

Americans should demand change!

[l monroe]

03:01 PM on 05/03/2012

Which would you want a small piece of pie that does not fill you or your family's belly or kill someone and do the drug trade and then be able to put one or more through Yale or Harvard?

[rda1911a1]

07:23 PM on 04/11/2012

I wonder if the gunman was armed by Eric holder?

[ssnwbrd]

09:41 PM on 04/11/2012

2500 guns arm a great number of crooks don't they? Very very possible that that happened.

[PBMac]

09:55 PM on 04/11/2012

Actually they were armed by us, the American people via courtesy of the NRA. The Mexican government has formerly complained about how easy it it is for the drug lords to get guns here and then transport them back into Mexico.

[Kenz300]

12:43 AM on 04/12/2012

Maybe Mexico needs to police its side of the border.

If there were police on both sides of the border doing the checking it would be pretty hard to smuggle guns, drugs and people.

I think Mexico has been happy in the past to let their people go north. It takes the pressure off the government to provide jobs, safety and services for their people.

[l monroe]

03:16 PM on 05/03/2012

Don't blame the NRA for the CIA's (Remember Ollie North- he wasn't the first piece of work to bring drugs into our country) cold drugs for money cold war attitude. That mess was created by Bush senior back in the sixties and seventies. They targeted malcontents who saw the writing on the wall back in the sixties and seventies(Why else target Cripes and Bloods as sales men for the drug sales). When the national security act freed itself from criminal laws of the United States unless specifically included they are exempt.

[ceekreewd]

05:48 PM on 04/11/2012

This is a war among corporations ( they are people after all...). Who will control the drugs into America and gets the money coming out ----> simple. Guess what Americans, YOU are a part of it --- think about it the next time a little coke/weed/other drugs are set before you....

[TruthBeTold420]

06:12 PM on 04/11/2012

No matter what anyone says, in our current society, the demand for drugs will always exist. It does not exist only in the United States. As long as there is a demand someone will find a way to supply the drugs. People will not simply stop purchasing drugs.

[ssnwbrd]

09:50 PM on 04/11/2012

When booze was outlawed crime went up as only those who were outside the law controled it. Made legal that sort of crime virtually disappeared. Yes there were a few areas where "white lightning" was made but for most of the country legal booze meant lower crime.

Same is true of Drugs and illegal immigrants. Both are in greater numbers and controlled by the crooks because they are not controlled and or are ignored by the governments. Legalize Pot means the entry level drug of choice for the cartel ceases to be profitable. Kids can't buy alcohol but can get pot from the corner by their school. Once "hooked" they can be egged on to try hard stuff. It happens. OUr laws are counter productive when it comes to stopping organized crime right now.

[richodg5]

07:10 AM on 04/12/2012

I smoke American.

[l monroe]

03:03 PM on 05/03/2012

How do you know that?

[Robert Greiwe]

03:34 PM on 04/11/2012

....the only way to stop all of this is to revolt. they need

[jazz sunder]

06:11 PM on 04/11/2012

they need? You NEED to complete your sentences so you don't look like an idiot, which you most likely are.

[TruthBeTold420]

06:09 PM on 04/11/2012

Actually,religion is more pervasive in Mexico than it is in the United States.

[Fran Jaime]

11:26 PM on 04/11/2012

That's not what the saying means. The saying: "Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos" refers to how Mexicans suffer and how that is made worse by having the US as our neighbor.

[Kenz300]

01:50 PM on 04/11/2012

The violence in Mexico needs to end.

For too long the people of Mexico tolerated the police and political corruption in Mexico.

Nothing will change until the people get fed up and demand an end to the violence and corruption

The Mexican government needs to provide jobs, safety and services for its people.

In the past its only economic policy was to export its people.

The people need to demand more from their police and politicians. Until they do nothing will change. Where are the next generation of leaders in Mexico demanding change?

[Arturo Ramrez]

02:58 PM on 04/11/2012

Always, right now I'm getting ready to smuggle 5 kilos of cocaine while I beat my wife. Seriously, give me a break....

[Fran Jaime]

06:04 PM on 04/11/2012

Funny! Hey Arturo, have you read this week's PROCESO? It's really, really good!

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

03:52 PM on 04/11/2012

And who are the major consumers of the products furnished by Mexican drug lords? Americans......And what nation struts on the global stage, exerting military power at will across the planet? America.... Sorry, DC, but I interrelate on a daily basis with my college students, about 1/3 of whom are hispanic, and cannot accept that all people of their ethnicity are violent and morally corrupt. Hispanics are no more susceptible to drugs and violence than any other race or nationality.

[ranman656]

12:26 PM on 04/11/2012

Mexicos greatest problems (as well as the United States problems) stem from the "drug war." For a solution to this problem, from those on the front lines please refer to the L.E.A.P. website.

[dogpaddle47]

10:12 AM on 04/11/2012

Hopefully, when PRI comes back into control, the country will start to calm down. People outside of Mexico believed PAN's promises about reform and stopping drugs. PRI is corrupt. But, PAN is identical to the extreme right-wing parties in countries like Guatemala or Honduras. PAN is much more corrupt than PRI and PAN has frightened away many billions in investment capital, making crime even worse.
Many Mexicans believe that the cartels work with PAN. The same sort of crime sprees existed in the Northern states that PAN controlled before they won any national elections.

[ikeeplearning]

10:35 AM on 04/11/2012

What PRI and PAN? In a nutshell, aren't the murderers sociopathic killers? They have created Hell on earth and we feel it here in the US.

[Fein]

11:12 AM on 04/11/2012

As we deserve, since we supply the money and guns.

[dogpaddle47]

12:18 PM on 04/11/2012

I didn't explain.....sorry. PRI is the Institutional Revolutionary Party, they were in power from the 1920s until the early '90s and are like conservative Democrats. They are a bit corrupt, but stable and helped the people and economy advance a little each year.
PAN is National Action Party. They are basically Republicans on steroids combined with the Mafia. They took power in the early '90s and, not long after, problems started with the Maya in the South and the drug cartels, which many think are allied with PAN, seem to have taken over the Northern states.
PRI is favored to win the presidency this year and, if that happens, the problems should start to clear up. PRI has always maintained tight control over criminal elements.

[Arturo Ramrez]

10:45 AM on 04/11/2012

I'm sure that the cartels work with people of all political affiliations. I don't want other 6 years of PAN, but I don't want 6 years of PRI either (specially with the military already on the streets), I'm not a PRDista myself, but I definitively dislike them less than the other two options, at least Mexico City has improved while a good portion of the country has been going downhill.

[dogpaddle47]

12:31 PM on 04/11/2012

Well, I'm a gringo and wannabe Tapatio. I lived in Mexico from 1973 to 1996 and everyone I knew had a little better life each year. I and everyone else could do whatever we wanted with a little mordido, if it didn't hurt anyone. The cartels were only visible in Sinaloa and a bit in other Northern states.
Yes, there were economic problems...late 80s. But, they were repaired eventually. I'm in the US now because of the troubles there and the Peso crash of 1994. The customers in my restaurant/bar were all Mexican and couldn't eat out or drink any more.
Extrano a Mexico.

[westronandnan]

09:53 AM on 04/11/2012

I enjoyed many wonderful vacations in beautiful Mexico. Not any more.

[Tuula Westra]

12:38 PM on 04/11/2012

Please do enjoy your vacations in Mejico, but do think about spending them in the USA, as there are 16.000 plus murders every year.

[jonny dipstick]

09:20 AM on 04/11/2012

How bad will it get before the people revolt?

[eric14]

09:59 AM on 04/11/2012

I think they fear revolt would bring greater chaos.

[jonny dipstick]

10:55 AM on 04/11/2012

Yeah, but just for a while and then things could get better.

[wishescometrue]

04:05 PM on 04/11/2012

I agree. They have vivid memories of the results of revolt a hundred years ago.

[RobietheCat]

02:31 PM on 04/11/2012

They will never revolt as long as millions can leave to invade the United States.

[jonny dipstick]

03:35 PM on 04/11/2012

Hmmm....what if we stopped immigration and then let them work it out down there?