Shootouts leave 8 police wounded in Mexico

[Adsos Letter]

Source: AP

TIJUANA, Mexico - Mexico started off the New Year with a string of shootouts and killings.

In the northern city of Torreon, federal police said Friday they had captured two alleged hit men after the suspects threw a hand grenade at police and soldiers who cornered them at a house. Eight officers were wounded in the Thursday confrontation.

The Public Safety Department said more grenades, pistols and assault rifles were found inside the home. The two suspects were members of the Gulf drug cartel and were wanted on homicide charges in the United States, the department said.

Killings in the border city of Tijuana started less than an hour into 2009 when Saul Tamayo Hernandez, 26, was shot by gunmen while celebrating the new year outside his house with his family.

Things in Tijuana seemed to get worse with the reported kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy. But police said Friday the youth staged his own disappearance.



Read more: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090103/twl-lt-mexico-violence-1be00ca.html

[High Plains]

1. More than 5,000 people killed in prohibition-related violence in Mexico in 2008.

And 2009 is off to a roaring start.