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MEXICO CITY – Gunmen drove up to a soccer field and shot five men to death as they played early Monday near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, police in southern Mexico said.
It was unclear why the five men were playing so late, but the region of Guerrero state is often so hot and humid by day that athletes wait until night to compete. Many people also work unusual hours in the local tourist industry.
The men were playing in the hamlet of Xaltianguis, on the northern outskirts of Acapulco, when gunmen in three vehicles pulled up beside the field and opened fire.
Two of the dead were identified as local men aged 25 and 34. The other three victims had not been identified because relatives quickly took the bodies away.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive for the attack. However, the area around Acapulco has been plagued in recent months by a bloody turf war between rival factions of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.
Disabled people, women, children and students have all figured among recent victims of violence in the drug war, which has killed more than 22,700 people since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against cartels in December 2006.
Also Monday, Mexican soldiers seized an arsenal of 31 mostly gold- or silver-plated, diamond-encrusted pistols believed to belong to the Valencia gang, allies of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, prosecutors said. Photos of the weapons showed apparently flamboyant examples of the sort of gaudily customized weapons favored by some drug gangsters.
It was unclear why the five men were playing so late, but the region of Guerrero state is often so hot and humid by day that athletes wait until night to compete. Many people also work unusual hours in the local tourist industry.
The men were playing in the hamlet of Xaltianguis, on the northern outskirts of Acapulco, when gunmen in three vehicles pulled up beside the field and opened fire.
Two of the dead were identified as local men aged 25 and 34. The other three victims had not been identified because relatives quickly took the bodies away.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive for the attack. However, the area around Acapulco has been plagued in recent months by a bloody turf war between rival factions of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.
Disabled people, women, children and students have all figured among recent victims of violence in the drug war, which has killed more than 22,700 people since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against cartels in December 2006.
Also Monday, Mexican soldiers seized an arsenal of 31 mostly gold- or silver-plated, diamond-encrusted pistols believed to belong to the Valencia gang, allies of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, prosecutors said. Photos of the weapons showed apparently flamboyant examples of the sort of gaudily customized weapons favored by some drug gangsters.
