Mexican prosecutors say prison guards lent inmates guns, let them out to carry out massacre

Mexico: Prison guards let killers out, lent guns

MEXICO CITY — Mexican prosecutors say guards at a prison let inmates out and lent them guns to massacre 17 people at a party, then allowed them to return to their cells.

Sunday’s announcement from the federal attorney general’s office represents a shocking revelation about the July 18 shooting in the northern city of Torreon, where the victims included women and children.

The director and two other officials at the prison in Durango state have been put under a form of house arrest while investigations continue.

Prosecution spokesman Ricardo Najera says there is evidence the director has given inmates permission to carry out drug-related killings in neighboring Coahuila state. He says the same method may have been used in two other shootings.