News

Gunmen open fire at AA meeting in Mexico

November 12, 2009 Edition 1

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico: Gunmen burst into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and opened fire in a violence-plagued Mexican border state, killing one person and wounding four others, authorities said.

Investigators have not determined a motive for the shootings on Monday in Chihuahua City, the state capital of Chihuahua, the state prosecutor's spokesman Eduardo Esparza said.

Gunmen have opened fire in several drug rehabilitation centres in Ciudad Juarez, located in the northern part of the state. In September, 28 people were killed in two such attacks in the border city, which has seen some of the worst violence in Mexico's drug war.

More than 1 900 people have been killed there this year. Esparza said Monday's shooting was the first such attack in Chihuahua City.

Authorities attribute the violence to a dispute between the rival Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, and have said some drug gangs may be using drug rehabilitation centres as a cover or recruiting grounds.

In the gulf coast state of Tabasco, state Attorney General Rafael Gonzalez Lastra said police had detained seven suspected members of the Zetas drug gang, including two teenagers, one aged 14.

He said that the gang "may be recruiting adolescents in order to avoid justice", given that minors are considered youthful offenders until the age of 18 - 16 in some states - and are not jailed.

The 14-year-old told the police his father had been in the gang before being arrested in December.- Sapa-AP