Mexican prisoners kill rivals, then escape

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Imprisoned members of the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel stabbed and bludgeoned 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel to death and then staged a mass escape, apparently with the help of prison authorities, officials in northern Mexico said yesterday.

Rodrigo Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Léon, said the prison director, three other officials and 18 prison guards were fired and are being investigated for purportedly helping in the escape.

"Unfortunately, a group of traitors has set back the work of a lot of good police," Medina said. "The most important thing is to make sure that the people working on the inside are on the side of the law, and that they not be corrupted and collaborate with the criminals, as the investigations indicate they presumably did."

Medina did not say how the escape was carried out, but he noted that no gang members had broken into the prison to spring their colleagues, as has happened at other Mexican prisons. Nor were any firearms smuggled in; all of the deaths apparently came from blunt objects or improvised knives.

Medina confirmed that all 30 escaped inmates were linked to Zetas, a brutal gang founded by deserters from an elite Mexican military unit and noted for mass killings of its enemies.

He did not say what crimes the escaped inmates had been convicted of, but said 25 of the 30 were in on federal charges, which often involve drug trafficking or illegal weapons possession. Medina offered a reward of almost $800,000 for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the mass escape.

He did not say whether the riot and murders were carried out to cover up the jailbreak, but said the escape appeared to have been planned, and may have involved help from authorities.

The Zetas and Gulf cartels were allies before splitting in 2010 and they have been fighting turf battles in Monterrey and elsewhere in northeastern Mexico.