Nearly 500 killed in '07 in Mexico's drug wars

By Hector Tobar
(c) 2007, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- According to media reports, nearly 500 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars so far this year despite a crackdown on the illicit trade by President Felipe Calderon.

The dead include dozens of police officers, the daughter of a retired Army general, and a suspected cartel hit man in the northern city of Monterrey left with a knife sticking out of his chest and a message to local officials affixed to his body.

"Attorney General: don't be a fool," the note said. It accused local officials of protecting Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, the bitter rivals of the Gulf Cartel, based in the border state of Tamaulipas. "This is just the beginning."

According to a tally kept by the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, the number of drug-related killings had reached 491 by Friday.