CIUDAD JUÃREZ – The murder toll in this border city is expected to rise this year for the first time since the waning days of a bloody drug war five years ago. A spike in homicides between July and October will push the city’s murder rate to more than 500 for the year despite a decline in murders in the last two months, according to statistics from the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office.
Criminal organizations continue to operate on both sides of the border but carry out the bulk of their violence on the Mexican side, where institutions are not as strong. Law enforcement and other experts say gangs are fighting not just for control of the plaza, but also for the local drug market.
“Some of the violence going on is still the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels in battles,” said Will Glaspy, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in West Texas and New Mexico. “Some of it is possibly due to methamphetamine being distributed in Ciudad Juárez. Some of that we think, too, is infighting within the Juárez cartel.”...more
No comments:
Post a Comment