Mexico shooting at cockfighting venue leaves 20 dead

Gunmen opened hearth at a cockfighting venue in Mexico over the weekend, killing 20 individuals and wounding 4 others in an assault that will have been a battle between legal gangs, authorities mentioned Monday.

The assault occurred late Sunday close to the city of Zinapecuaro in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan, the state’s prosecutors mentioned. Three of the lifeless have been girls.

SUSPECTED MEXICO CARTEL MEMBER AIMS AK-47 AT TEXAS DPS HELICOPTER PATROLLING NEAR BORDER

The gunmen appeared to have deliberate the assault, getting into the venue inside a stolen truck owned by a snack meals firm and utilizing a bus to dam these inside from escaping or calling for assist.

“The snack meals firm truck arrived, and a number of other armed individuals in camouflage clothes acquired out,” a prosecutors’ assertion mentioned. “On the identical second, a bus that was exterior the constructing was used as a blockade.”

Prosecutors mentioned one car that appeared to belong to a sufferer had stickers with the emblem of a legal gang, including that drug cartels and different legal gangs had been preventing within the space.

“There are indications that the assault concerned a confrontation between legal teams,” the federal Public Security Division mentioned in a press release. It mentioned a workforce of federal investigators had been despatched to the scene.

Troopers patrol the cockfighting web site “El Paraiso,” or Paradise in Zinapecuaro, Mexico, on Monday. (AP Picture/Armando Solis)

Michoacan has been the scene of a long-standing turf battle between native cartels and the Jalisco cartel, from the neighboring state of Jalisco. The preventing has included using bomb-dropping drones, landmines and home-made armored vehicles.

Cock preventing, whereas unlawful in lots of areas, stays a well-liked pastime in elements of Mexico, although the fights are often held clandestinely.

The Related Press contributed to this report.