NUEVO LAREDO SHOOTOUT KILLS 4

2 State Police Officers Among the Dead in Ambush on Airport Road

MEXICO CITY - A 30-minute shootout Tuesday morning in the border city
of Nuevo Laredo left two state police officers and two assailants
dead, authorities said.

So far this year, more than 40 people have been killed in the city,
where rival drug cartels are locked in a battle for control of the
Interstate 35 corridor, a key smuggling route into the U.S. Last year,
Nuevo Laredo recorded 179 slayings.

Among those killed Tuesday were Victor Berrones Lara, state police
commander for the city, and Norberto Vasquez, a 24-year-old state
police agent. Two other agents were seriously injured and taken to a
hospital.

The four officers were riding in their patrol truck on the main
highway to the airport when gunmen in separate vehicles ambushed them,
said Hector Walle Juarez, a state police spokesman.

Two of the gunmen were killed, he said. Hundreds of bullet casings
from AK-47 and .223-caliber weapons were found at the scene, according
to local reporters who were there.

"We cannot confirm which cartels were involved or even if the gunmen
were members of any cartel," Mr. Walle said. "We have to investigate
this much further."

U.S. law enforcement officials declined to discuss the shootout in
detail but warned of the ongoing battle between the Gulf and Sinaloa
drug cartels, which officials say may have operatives in North Texas.

The latest wave of killings began in early January after the slaying
of a man believed to be the brother of Miguel Trevino, the Gulf
cartel's purported leader in the Nuevo Laredo area.

"It'd be too speculative to speak of any organized groups, but the
investigation continues," said Tamaulipas state Attorney General
Mercedes del Carmen Guillen Vicente.

Some U.S. authorities say Mr. Trevino and his subordinates have gone
on a rampage to avenge his brother's death.

On Saturday, a 17-year-old girl from Laredo was killed and two other
teens were injured by gunfire as they drove toward the border from a
Nuevo Laredo disco.

The situation in Nuevo Laredo and across the country, where the death
toll from drug-related violence is nearly 350 this year, led National
Human Rights Commission Chairman Jose Luis Soberanes to issue a
warning to the federal government.

"We are a society under threat," he said last month. "We feel
intimidated in the streets, in the parks, in our houses."