Guards Implicated in Mexico Prison's Deadly Gang Attack
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MEXICO CITY -- Just after 1 a.m., the guards opened the doors, and 30 men climbed up to guard tower No. 6 of the state prison outside the northern city of Monterrey. One by one, they slipped down ropes to waiting vehicles.
Just after the men made their escape into the surrounding mountains, more guards opened more doors. This time, they let inmates belonging to the Zetas criminal gang surge from Cellblock C into Cellblock D, where their rivals in the Gulf Cartel were sleeping.
Over the next hour, Nuevo León State officials say, 44 prisoners -- all believed to be part of the Gulf Cartel -- were bludgeoned, beaten and stabbed to death.
Only two hours after the events began Sunday did jail officials at the Apodaca Prison alert state officials and the army.
"By the time we had the call for help, it was already past 3 in the morning, two hours after the escape and the fight," said Jorge Domene, the state security spokesman, describing Sunday morning's events. "By the time help arrived in response to the call, almost all the deaths had taken place," he said, indicating that prison security cameras showed that more than 200 inmates had participated in the killings.
Officials in Nuevo León State said the jailbreak and the massacre had been carried out by the Zetas, the violent gang of drug enforcers who have turned against their former bosses in the Gulf Cartel and spread their reach over large parts of northern Mexico and the Gulf Coast.
The Zetas appeared to have the authorities at the Apodaca prison under their control. Investigators continued to question security guards Tuesday, and Mr. Domene told a radio interviewer that as many as 16 guards and officials had been implicated, including the prison's warden, Gerónimo Miguel Andrés MartÃnez, and its chief of security, Óscar Deveze Laureano.
First Published February 22, 2012 12:01 am
