Mexico: attackers ram vehicles in prison

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Burned out car near Tula

Photo: Ginnette Riquelme / AP

The influence of criminal gangs in Mexico is enormous.

On the other side are the security forces, who have armed themselves but still cannot counter the cartels' actions enough.

And even if there are arrests, that does not always mean that the suspects will actually remain in custody.

This is proven by the latest case from the central Mexican city of Tula.

Unknown people stormed a prison there and freed nine inmates.

The gunmen gained access to the detention center on Thursday night by ramming the building with vehicles.

In addition, two vehicles were set on fire near the prison as a diversionary maneuver, said the interior minister of the state of Hidalgo, Simón Vargas.

Among the escaped prisoners was the leader of a gang that, among other things, stole fuel, as local media reported, citing the authorities.

The man had only been arrested a few days earlier on suspicion of murder and kidnapping.

According to the police, two members of the security forces were injured in the action.

Media reports that the criminals had also detonated at least one car bomb were initially not confirmed.

Criminal gangs keep tapping pipelines in Mexico to steal gasoline or gas.

At least 135 people were killed in the explosion of a gasoline line in Hidalgo in January 2019.

Extremely high murder rate in Mexico

In Mexico, where around 126 million people live, the latest figures show an average of more than 80 murders a day - in Germany there were 245 in the entire past year. Most of the crimes are never resolved.

The government has been using federal troops to fight the cartels since 2006, and more than 300,000 people have been killed since then.

There are always brutal attacks.

Most recently, a shootout between rival gangs on a beach near Cancun terrified tourists in the popular Mexican holiday region.

There was a clash between hostile groups of drug traffickers in Puerto Morelos, said the Attorney General of the state of Quintana Roo.

A German tourist died at the end of October when she got caught between the front lines in a shooting in a bar in the holiday resort of Tulum.

Another woman from India was also killed.

The place is south of Cancun on the Caribbean coast.

jok / dpa