17 inmates die in Mexican prison riot; victims all shot to death

17 inmates shot dead in Mexico prison riot

MEXICO CITY — Seventeen inmates were shot to death Monday during a prison riot in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The lock-up in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan was quickly brought under control and investigators found two pistols and an assault rifle, said Martin Gastelum, a spokesman for the Sinaloa state prosecutors’ office.

Two police officers guarding the prison were wounded, one seriously.

Many of Mexico’s most powerful drug traffickers hail from Sinaloa, a key smuggling corridor and cultivation area for marijuana and opiates. The northwestern state, and Mazatlan in particular, are currently rife with turf battles among drug gangs.

Local media reported that the victims were apparently members of the Zetas drug gang, which is battling the powerful Sinaloa cartel, but officials were unable to confirm that.

Mexico’s drug gangs frequently attempt to break their members out of prison, by staging attacks from the outside or buying off prison officials. But there was no immediate confirmation that Monday’s shootings involved a prison-break attempt.