Americas News
Gang fight kills 31 in Mexican jail
Jan 5, 2012, 16:29 GMT
Mexico City - A fight at a prison in the north-eastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas has left 31 inmates dead and 13 injured, state authorities said.
The daily El Universal reported Thursday that the fight, which happened a day earlier, had been between members of the Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel gangs.
The gangs were reportedly fighting 'for control of illegal activities within the prison' in the town of Altamira, with a capacity for some 2,000 inmates, El Universal said.
Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have long been fighting each other in Tamaulipas, on the US border, and also in other Mexican states for control of the drug trade.
This is the most serious recent fight in a Mexican jail, where such incidents are relatively common.
In October 2008, a fight between inmates at a jail in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, left 21 dead. In June 2010, 29 inmates died in another prison fight in Mazatlan, in the state of Sinaloa.
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