Medical personnel remove the body of a victim killed in drug violence in Monterrey, Mexico. (File photo)
Nine people have been killed and six others injured in a series of gang-related shootings in three Mexican cities over the weekend, officials say.
In the early hours of Sunday, gunmen killed two men and wounded two others among a group standing outside a bar in the northern industrial area of Monterrey, police said.
The incident came three days after attackers killed four people and wounded two others at a bar in a nearby suburb of Monterrey. Authorities said both events were similar in that the assailants arrived in taxis.
In a separate incident on Saturday night, a group of armed men on motorcycles killed three young men and a 22-year-old woman and injured four others after opening fire at a bar in the resort city of Cuernavaca, the Morelos State prosecutor’s office said.
In a final incident on Saturday afternoon, gunmen opened fire outside a convenience store and killed three people in the northern city of Fresnillo. Federal and local police launched a wide search for the escaped criminals in the city known as a main drug trafficking route.
This is while, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said there was a significant drop in drug-related killings, particularly in Monterrey and Torreon, during his first state-of-the-nation address earlier this month.
Since 2010, the Zetas and the Gulf cartels have been involved in ongoing drug-related battles in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Fresnillo. The Beltran Leyva cartel has also posed major problems for vacationers and US retirees who frequent the city of Cuernavaca.
Official figures show that since Nieto took office, about 1,000 people have died each month in drug-related violence and the army is still fighting cartels across large parts of the country.
Nearly 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico’s drug cartels in December 2006.
GMA/SS
9 dead, 6 hurt in Mexico shootings
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