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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Areas around Fresnillo, Villanueva and Sombrerete municipalities in Zacatecas state have heated up since last Sunday as rival armed gangs engaged in firefights killing at least three. Also in Sombrerete, a small aircraft crashed in a remote area of the municipality killing three according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news item posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, a small aircraft crashed near the village of Charco Blanco en Sombrerete municipality. Four unidentified individuals were killed. The report added the authorities at the time of the news posting did not know if the aircraft was a government or private bird.
Meanwhile, armed groups presumably associated with the drug cartel fought each other in several engagements in Sombrerete, Villanueva and Fresnillo municipalities since Sunday.
Two individuals were found Tuesday in two separate vehicles abandoned after a Sunday shootout between armed groups in Fresnillo municipality. The first unidentified victim was found in a stolen abandoned Volkswagen Jetta sedan near the village of Purisima del Maguey. Inside the vehicle was found one AK-47 rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and at least 24 packages of marijuana.
Near the village of Enrique Estrada, also in Fresnillo municipality, a second shooting victim was found dead aboard a Volkswagen Bora sedan, and was identified as Fernando Dueñas Acevedo. The news report said the second victim may have also been involved in Sunday's shootout in Villanueva municipality, which took the life in a police agent.
Also in Fresnillo municipality, police agents raided a safe house in El Triunfo, seizing undisclosed quantities of drugs and weapons. No detainees were reported in that raid
A separate El Sol de Zacatecas report said that numerous gunfights have taken place since Tuesday between armed groups in the hills between Valparaiso and Sombrerete municipalities. The report did not mention any casualties.
In Valparaiso last March five unidentified individuals were killed by elements of the Mexican 52 Infantry Battalion. A second relief element dispatched from a base in Fresnillo to reinforce the fight was attacked. No one was reported wounded or detained in that second shootout.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
© Copyright 2012 by Chris Covert
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