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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of six individuals have died in ongoing drug and gang related violence in southern Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news reports.
On Tuesday reports reached the delegate for the Chihuahua state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general that a shootout between rival gangs had left six dead in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality.
According to a report which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Chihuahua news daily, an anonymous tip was phoned in Sunday about the gunfight, but security forces were not able to reached the area, said to be near Mesa de la Reforma, which is now a trouble spot for drug gang violence including kidnapping in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality. Drug gangs are known to put up roadblocks in that region specifically to press any captured male victims traveling through the area into service.
In the location of the shootout, according to a separate news account which appeared in the website of EL Diario de Coahuila news daily, some of the dead were found clothed in the uniforms of Chihuahua state police agents. Chihuahua state Policia Estatal Unica and ministerial agents had been unable to reach the area due to heavy rains and flooding until Tuesday morning. The shootout was said to have taken place Sunday afternoon.
At the scene of the shootout, police found 389 spent cartridge casings for AK-47 rifles as well as a 1999 GMC pickup truck damaged from gunfire. Two of the six dead were identified as Cristian Noriel Mendivil Carrillo, 20, of Dolores, and Isaac Gutierrez Gutierre, 19, of La Mesa de Reforma. Two of the six victims had been beheaded though the report failed to note if the two identified victims were the victims who had been mutilated.
Police also found six buildings damaged by fire in a nearby abandoned area and they seized seven vehicles.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and Borderlandbeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com