Asia-Pacific

Drug gang gunfight kills 28 in Mexican state

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-26 15:59

Suspect Julio de Jesus Radilla Hernandez ,34, alias " El Negro" (C) is presented with others suspects, Jose Luis Delgado, 25, alias " El Jabon" and Valentin Lopez (R) to the media by the Federal Police in Mexico City May 25, 2011. According to the Federal Police, Radilla Hernandez is accused of killing seven people, including Juan Francisco Sicilia, the son of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who was found dead along with six others inside a car on March 28, 2011 in Morelos.[Photo/Agencies]

MEXICO CITY - Twenty-eight people were killed in a shootout among suspected rival drug gangs on a remote highway in the Mexican Pacific Coast state of Nayarit, authorities said.

Police found 28 bodies strewn around 10 abandoned cars on a federal highway, Nayarit's state prosecutor's office said in a statement late on Wednesday. Four others were wounded.

Officers found the crime scene after following up on a reported kidnapping, the statement said.

More than 38,000 people have been killed in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-backed crackdown on drug cartels four years ago, sparking bloody criminal turf wars and street battles with federal security forces.

Also on Wednesday, Mexican police captured a suspected drug enforcer blamed for ordering the murder of the son of a prominent poet, which helped prompt national protests against the government's drug war strategy.