Drug violence in Acapulco

Associated Press:

A judge and four jail guards were killed in separate attacks on Friday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, which has suffered a recent wave of violence blamed on drug traffickers.

Three assailants gunned down the guards about 100 yards outside the local jail as they were heading home after their shift, said Jorge Valdez, a spokesman for the Acapulco city government.

Each guard was shot at least 10 times by the attackers, who escaped in a car driven by a fourth man, Valdez said. Authorities had not made any arrests.

Valdez said that in a separate incident, Judge Mario Moreno was stabbed numerous times as he left his house in the center of Acapulco, located about 185 miles southeast of Mexico City. He died later at a hospital.

Acapulco has been besieged for months by a wave of shootings, stabbings and grenade attacks on police stations. Criminals have left the decapitated heads of at least six victims in front of government offices with threatening notes attached.

Authorities say the violence is part of a turf war between drug traffickers over shipment routes.

Mexican leaders also are battling to control drug violence in the northern border states and in the central-Pacific state of Michoacan.

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