7 YOUNG MEN KILLED IN SHOOTOUT AT MARIJUANA FIELD IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY - Seven young men were killed in a shootout at a
marijuana field in northern Mexico on Wednesday, and authorities said
the traffickers removed the drugs before police arrived on the scene.

The shootout occurred in a mountain marijuana plantation in Higueras
de Abuya, 55 miles south of the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan, a
prime drug-smuggling region, said Marcelo Arellano, a spokesman for
the state attorney general.

He said the fields had been harvested recently, and the drugs had been
moved into a drying facility at the plantation. But shortly after the
shootout the traffickers apparently removed the drugs, Arellano said
in a telephone interview.

"Only residues were left," he said.

Arellano said the shootout occurred in the early hours of Wednesday,
and passers-by spotted the bodies in the morning and called police.

The bodies were of young men between the ages of 17 and 25, including
two pairs of brothers, he said. Each had suffered several bullet
wounds from Kalashnikov rifles.