Nine dead after gunmen fire 'indiscriminately' in Mexico arcade

Drug wars in the are has been a big challenge for the government
AFP via Getty Images
Ellena Cruse4 February 2020

Nine people have been killed and two injured after four gunmen opened fire at a video game arcade in Mexico.

The attackers appeared to be searching for specific targets but then shot indiscriminately at customers, prosecutors in the state of Michoacan said.

The attack happened on Monday in the western city of Uruapan, where violence is said to have reached shocking levels.

Over the weekend, investigators also found the decomposed bodies of 11 people in clandestine graves in the region.

Uruapan is where many believe Mexico’s drug wars began
AFP via Getty Images

Prosecutors said they were investigating a missing person case when they received a tip about the burial pits.

And on Friday in Uruapan, gunmen attacked a municipal police patrol, killing one officer and wounding two others.

That attack may have been retaliation for the Friday arrest of a Viagras gang leader who has been implicated in 19 murders.

Turf wars between the Jalisco and Viagras drug cartels, as well as predecessors, have bloodied the city for several years.

In August, Jalisco cartel gunmen left nine bodies hanging from an overpass, with seven more corpses hacked up and dumped by the road nearby. An additional three more bodies were found further away.

They hung a banner from the overpass threatening the Viagras.

Uruapan is where many believe Mexico’s drug war began when armed, masked men burst into a bar there and tossed five severed heads onto the dance floor, along with written threats to rivals in September 2006.

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