By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of seven individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in southern Chihuahua municipalities according to several Mexican news accounts.
Three unidentified individuals were found shot to death in Jimenez municipality Sunday, according to a news account posted on the website of El Sol de Parral news daily.
The victims were found stuffed inside an SUV following a reported shootout in an area of Jimenez city near the intersection of calles Allende and 10th. A fourth victim was also found who had been wounded.
The news account said that gunfire had been reported in several neighborhoods just prior to the discovery of the victims' bodies.
A fourth shooting victim was reported Sunday night in Jimenez, this time a local drug lord, identified as Uriel Canton AKA El Doctor, according to a news brief posted on the website of La Polaka news daily. Sr. Canton was found on Bulevar Oscar Floes shot to death.
Meanwhile in Parral, a father and his son were beaten to death Sunday night, according tom a news account in El Sol de Parral. The incident took place when suspects traveling aboard a truck stopped and attacked the men, beating them to death using stones.
The victims were identified as Jesus José Chaparro Cereceres, 38 and his son, José Rodolfo Chaparro Saenz.
In Batopilas municipality Friday a man was found shot to death, according to a separate news account in El Sol de Parral.
Miguel Renteria Mancinas, 28, reportedly left his residence in the village of Casa Viejas. He was found among rock on a road between Batopilas and Satevo. Several spent cartridge casings for AK-47 and 9mm weapons were found at the scene.
Also on Friday in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality five individuals including two children were shot and wounded in a shootout at a dance. The problem started in the village of Gallinas at around 0100 hrs when two men began to fight over a woman. At one point they both pulled pistols and fired.
The wounded were identified as Filiberto Flores Chaparro, 22, Ubaldo Flores Bojorquez, 23, Leonarda Ramos Ayala, 35, Miguel Ángel Cota Ramos, 13, and Elmer Cota Ramos, 11.
In Camargo municipality Friday three men were detained for a number of crimes, including drug sales and auto theft. The detaineess were identified in a news account in El Sol de Parral as Hector Garza Leyva, 33, Eduardo Solis, 28, and Francisco Garcia Coronado, 27.
The arrests took place when state police observed a double parked car in Villas del Sol colony in Camargo. Police also seized one stolen vehicle, one .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol and a quantity of crack cocaine that had been divided presumably for sale.
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| Carlos Manuel Salas |
Finally, Monday the Chihuahua state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) announced the investigation into the disappearance of 12 individuals in southern Chihuahua state, according to a news account on the website of El Diario de Juarez.
Carlos Manuel Salas announced that most of the disappearances have taken place in the western Chihuahua sierras where criminal gangs have been recruiting shooters. According to the news report Manuel Salas said that not all the disappearances were from illegal checkpoints and carjackings.
Travel in southern Chihuahua, especially around the sierras of western Chihuahua has been hazardous especially for males, so much so, some bus drivers refuse to taker on those passengers for fear of illegal checkpoints maintained by criminal gangs in the area looking for new recruits.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com