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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of six individuals were killed in drug or gang related violence in and around Monterrey, Nuevo Leon since last Saturday, according to Mexican news reports.
According to a news account posted on the website of Milenio news daily, four members of a criminal cell were killed by Nuevo Leon state police agents Wednesday.
Several days ago, Mexican security authorities detained an undisclosed number of women in Marin municipality, who told police of the existence of a number of areas in and around Marin which were used by a local criminal gang for training.
A search was undertaken in the area. When a group of Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) agents entered an area with a number of abandoned residences on Nuevo Leon Highway 5, they came under small arms fire from an armed group holed up inside one of the residences.
Police returned fire, initiating a firefight which lasted several minutes. Agents then found four armed suspects who died in the confrontation.
Among the dead was an man identified only as El Chino Marino, who was said in news reports to be a local leader of a gang affiliated with Los Zetas.
Three AEI agents were hit with shrapnel in the firefight but were not wounded seriously.
In the aftermath police secured one vehicle, four rifles, an undisclosed number of pistols, ammunition and drugs.
A separate Milenio report said that two of the four dead were identified as Cristopher Martinez Nava, 17, and Jesus Alberto Sandoval Rocha, 21.
Three other individuals were killed in three separate incidents, including two women.
- Three days ago, a failed home invasion robbery led to the death of one unidentified armed suspect in northern Monterrey. According to a news report posted on the online edition of Milenio, at around midnight two suspects forced their way into a residence located near the intersection of calles Castillejo and Militronche in Barrio Chapultepec Norte colony, but were met unexpectedly with an unidentified AEI agent with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. One of the suspects managed to flee while the other was struck by gunfire and died at the scene. Apparently, the armed suspects entered the residence to extort the owner of an internet cafe, not realizing one of the owners was a Nuevo Leon AEI agent.
- An unidentified woman was found buried secretly at a cemetery in Anahuac municipality in far northern Nuevo Leon state Wednesday. According to a news report posted on the website of Milenio, municipal police agents found the grave, which has only recently been dug at the site. The victim had been beaten to death. The news report did not speculate as to the victim's age, only that she was described as young.
- In San Nicolas de los Garza municipality, another young woman was found shot to death. Myriam Alejandra Lara Padilla, 24, was found in Pedregal de Santo Domingo colony struck by gunfire six times Wednesday. The report said she had been shot by armed suspects from aboard a vehicle.
Separately, a man was detained by AEI agents in Monterrey Wednesday and 59 kilograms of marijuana were seized.
The arrest took place on Avenida Lincoln in Fidel Velazquez colony where Hector José Ortega Perez, 63, was stopped as he was driving a Silverado pickup truck. The drugs had been hidden beneath a cargo of fruit. Ortega Perez had been allegedly involved in the distribution of marijuana for the past eight months, according to the news account.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com