Body found in Mexican border city

ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:25 a.m. November 11, 2005

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – The body of a man who had been shot at least 10 times was found at a ranch on the outskirts of this violent border city, increasing the number of homicides this year to 156, police said.

Guadalupe Villareal, 54, was found late Thursday at a ranch 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of Nuevo Laredo, said Javier Sepulveda, an investigator with state police.

Sepulveda said the assailants used R-15 assault rifles and that investigators found 15 shell casings at the scene.

Relatives told investigators that Villareal was a cattle rancher but police were looking into possible links to organized crime.

The killing brings the number of homicides this year to 156. In 2004, there were 64 slaying victims in Nuevo Laredo, a city of 300,000 people across the border from Laredo, Texas.

The area has seen an increase in drug-related killings following the capture of the region's alleged drug lord, Osiel Cardenas, who was arrested in 2003 during a shootout in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Authorities say the violence has intensified in recent months because another reputed drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been fighting smugglers loyal to Cardenas to gain access to prized smuggling routes into the United States.