Prison guards under arrest in Mexico

  • 12 years ago
Prison guards suspected of helping to orchestrate an elaborate mass jailbreak during a deadly prison fire that killed dozens of inmates in Mexico are paraded before the media Wednesday.

Dozens were killed over the weekend in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey when a fire broke out in prison as part of an alleged mass jailbreak of the Zetas cartel.

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SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) NUEVO LEON ATTORNEY GENERAL, ADRIAN DE LA GARZA SAYING:

"The investigations have uncovered the direct participation in the riot and others helped in the escape. Furthermore, we are also investigating the events that took place inside the prison. What we can say up to now, is that this riot was a direct attack on certain people (in the prison)."

Authorities say members of the Zetas drug cartel plotted with prison guards to orchestrate an escape and brutally kill 44 of their rivals from the Gulf Cartel in one of the worst episodes of prison violence in Mexico.

More than 50 prison employees are being questioned by police, with some 29 prison guards held under arrest.

Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters