HIT MAN GUNNING FOR DRUG-SMUGGLER KILLS THREE, WOUNDS TWO IN MEXICAN BORDER
CITY

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- A man wielding a machine gun burst into a bar in
this border city and opened fire on a suspected drug smuggler and his
friends, killing three people and wounding two others.

Police commander Arturo Pedroza said the attack occurred in the El Sitio
bar shortly before midnight Wednesday. The gunman was after Ismael Flores
Godines, a convicted drug pusher known as "El Mayelo."

Flores Godines was among those injured in the attack, Pedroza said.

Pedroza said local police officer Alfredo Guevara and ex-state police
officer Arturo "The Russian" Gallegos were killed. Key drug smugglers often
buy protection from corrupt police officials using a series of relatively
small bribes, federal authorities say.

On Sunday, men with automatic weapons fired more than 10 shots at Flores
Godines as he was walking to his home outside Nuevo Laredo, 550 miles north
of Mexico City, across the border from Laredo, Texas.