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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Five individuals were found shot to death at a residence in Ciudad Lerdo in Durango Sunday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, the incident took place at a residence in Laureles colony Sunday morning, where the family, two adult males, a minor girl and their mother, were found by local police shot to death.
The dead were identified as Ana Patricia Gonzalez Gonzalez, 44, Jesus Antonio Olguin Gonzalez, 21, Octavio Olguin Gonzalez, 23 and Iliana Eunice Olguin Gonzalez, 9. Also found dead inside the residence was Hugo Cesar Castro Vazquez, 43.
Mexican press accounts say the shooting was unrelated to gang or drug crime.
Ciudad Lerdo is one of the main Durango municipalities in La Laguna region and has dodged much of the drug and gang related violence, unlike Gomez Palacio or Torreon in Coahuila state, just across the state border.
Meanwhile in Gomez Palacio, four suspects were detained by a Policia Federal road patrol Monday. According to a news report posted on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, the patrol had observed the four suspects travelling aboard a vehicle at an excessive rate of speed. Briefly the driver of the vehicle attempted to flee, but quickly stopped.
Police found two handguns, three weapons magazines, 14 rounds of ammunition, a fragmentation grenade, 400 packages of marijuana and 200 packages of powder cocaine.
The detainees were identified as Victor Ernesto Orta Perez, 20, Felipe de Jesus Garcia Galaviz, 31, Juan Antonio Vazquez Navarro, 22 and Alejandro Ivan Rivas Fuentes, 28.
The news account hinted that the four could possibly be linked to the murder of the five traffic police agents last Thursday in La Laguna including four in Gomez Palacio, as well as the four arson fires set in businesses owned by the former major of Gomez Palacio, Rocio Rebollo.
About the resignation last week of Rocio Rebollo, Durango radio journalist Ruben Cardenas said on Twitter: "Gomez Palacio has no police, and now no mayor."
Drug and gang crime in Gomez Palacio has been so bad that parents are removing children from school based on rumors that local schools could be attacked using small arms or arson fires.
According to a separate news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango, the Primaria José Rebollo Acosta primary school in Felipe Angeles colony was emptied of students at around 1100 hrs when rumors came to light of narcopintas, or messages left by local drug gangs, threatening attacks on local schools.
The report also hinted other schools in Gomez Palacio had reported absentees, even though teachers remained at the schools.
A late report posted Monday evening on El Siglo de Durango reported that a man was found shot to death in a gated community in Gomez Palacio. Jose Alfredo Carrillo, 44 was found shot once in the temple in his residence in Las Noas colony.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com