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Mexican police detain 12 people for alleged links to killings
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-15 12:45

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican police have detained 12 people in the southern state of Guerrero for their alleged links to the killing of 24 people two days earlier, authorities said Sunday.

The arrests were made on Saturday as part of a joint operation against drug trafficking and organized crime in the country.

During the operation, the military and the federal police surrounded a house in the town of Arcelia in Guerrero and arrested 12 people inside --  11 men and one woman, the Public Security Ministry and Guerrero's Civil Protection said.

Authorities also seized several guns of large calibre, hundreds of cartridges, and stolen vehicles.

Police found a vehicle dotted with bullet holes near the house. In another house, police seized marijuana, cartridges, portable radios and uniforms with the labels of the Federal Agency of Investigation.

The bodies of 24 people were found last Friday in the forests of the mountain town of Ocoyoacac in Estado de Mexico State. All of them were shot by a nine-millimeter gun.

According to the General Prosecutor Office of the Republic, the victims were members of a drug cartel called "Los Pelones," and experts were working to identify the bodies.

At least 3,000 people have been killed in Mexico in 2008 in violence related to organized crime and drug trafficking, according to local press.