News Around the Borderland Beat

News around the Borderland Beat

Shots panic Mexico concert crowd; 5 die

Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon - The crowd at a concert in Guadalupe, Mexico, panicked when gunshots were heard early Sunday and five people died in the ensuing stampede, authorities said. The five people were trampled to death early Sunday when a gunshot fired at a cattle fair sent a panic-stricken crowd rushing for the exits in a northern Mexico town already on edge from rampant drug violence.

The dead, two women and three men, lay outside the building surrounded by crumpled beer cans and other litter dropped in the rush.

Police found a bullet casing from the shot that likely caused the 1 a.m. stampede, de la Garza said at a news conference.

At least 17 other people were injured at the fair in Guadalupe, outside the industrial city of Monterrey, said Adrian de la Garza, head of the Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency.

Guadalupe police said the band Intocable was performing at the city's livestock exposition center when the apparent shooting occurred in a section packed with more than 500 people, the newspaper said. Those killed were crushed, police said.

At least 12 people at the scene were detained for questioning, according to an agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the case. He said Guadalupe officials were investigating possible negligence by organizers of the fair, which featured live music and games.

Guadalupe Mayor Ivonne Alvarez said the rest of the event has been cancelled.

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Around the Borderland Beat

In Mazatlan Sinaloa a group of heavily armed sicarios unleashed a barrage of gunfire on a white Cherokee where a woman was killed instantly inside. The victim was identified as Xóchitl Cristina Tapia Valle, 25, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The street was covered with spent casings from numerous AK-47's or "cuernos de chivo" type weapons.

Five young men were killed during a shootout from car to car in Mazatlan Sinaloa. According to unconfirmed reports a blue Astra was travelling from north to south on a local road when they were attacked and killed by individuals who were aboard another car armed with high caliber weapons.

One afternoon this Monday a body of a man was found in an area covered with thick brush in Culiacán, Sinaloa. The deceased was in an advanced state of decomposition. The victim had not been identified by police authorities and the cause of death is not known.

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Around The Borderland Beat

Policemen take notes next to the dead body of a woman shot by unknown gunmen at the border city of Ciudad Juarez March 29, 2010. Nearly 19,000 people have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and deployed tens of thousands of troops to drug hot spots across the country, sparking new turf wars between rival cartels.

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks shows Mexican tar heroin and methamphetamine seized in different raid operations at a news conference at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department Jail Annex Building, in Ventura, Calif. on Monday, March 29, 2010. Ventura County officials say the arrest of a man dubbed Mexico's 'King of Heroin' has removed a half-million doses of the drug from California streets. Authorities said a regional task force spent more than two years working its way up the chain of dealers until the arrest of Jose Antonio Medina, AKA Don Pepe, last week in Mexico.

In this March 26, 2010 photo, school children prepare to raise the U.S. and Texas flags in front of the elementary school in Fort Hancock, Texas. Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, epicenter of that country's bloody drug war. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation.

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Around the Borderland Beat

Two alleged members of Beltran Leyva's drug cartel are presented to press at the headquarters of the Mexican Navy, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico. Mexican drug cartels are increasing their dominance in the illegal US drug market through closer ties with street gangs and increased production, according to a US Justice Department report out Thursday.

Motorists head into Mexico at the border in San Ysidro, California. Drug kingpin Jose Antonio Medina hid heroin in secret compartments of vehicles crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and the US city of San Diego, one of the world's busiest border crossings.

Seized drugs and packages of marijuana and crystal meth are displayed during a presentation to the press in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, March 24, 2010. According to the State Police working with the army, six suspects busted, allegedly related to the Arellano`s Felix drug cartel, were nabbed with guns and drugs.

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