DOPE WAR LEAVES MORE VICTIMS DEAD IN THE STREETS OF MONTERREY

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Rival drug cartels continued their bloody turf
war in the streets of this city early Thursday with a high-caliber
shootout that killed five people, including a woman riding a bus home
from work.

The four male victims of the shootout included a former police
commander and the head of a cell of the sanguinary Sinaloa drug
cartel, according to media reports.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Natividad Gonzalez Paras said the shootout was between
drug cartels vying for control of Monterrey and surrounding environs.

"The episode ... is a sign that (we're) dealing with a war between
trans-state organizations that are fighting to take control," of the
region, said Gonzalez, pointing to a turf war between the Sinaloa and
Gulf cartels that has unleashed a wave of violence in northern Mexico
the past two years.

Newspaper El Norte identified the target of the attack as Miguel Angel
Alanis Caballero, known as "La Chiva," or "the Goat."

Alanis died in the attack along with Gustavo de Leon Perez, a former
judicial police officer, according to the newspaper.

The gunbattle occurred outside a mall in the Monterrey suburb of
Guadalupe around midnight Wednesday.

About half a dozen late model SUVs and luxury cars were shot up in the
exchange, and were believed to have belonged to the gunmen.

A bus also was hit by gunfire, killing a woman, who was an innocent
bystander.

The killings bring to about 56 the number of deaths related to
organized crime in the state of Nuevo Leon in 2006, according to media
tallies.

About 10 of the victims were active law enforcement members, including
a federal prosecutor earlier this week.

The tally is a record and authorities in the formerly peaceful city
have appeared powerless to stop the violence.

Most of the killings have been unresolved, though the state's attorney
general twice in November promised to announce advances in
investigations.