Acapulco: Drug-related violence left 25 people dead in Mexico's southern Guerrero state, including four people who were decapitated, authorities said.
Two bodies of decapitated men were found overnight on Scenic Avenue in downtown Acapulco and the two decapitations were found west of the resort city, officials said yesterday.
Four other civilians were also found dead in and around Acapulco.
The five police officers were shot to death by a lone gunman in nearby Tulchingo, the officials added.
In Ajuchitlan del Progreso, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Acapulco, 11 presumed drug traffickers were killed in a shootout with an Army unit during a raid on a home.
Soldiers knocked on the door and "were greeted with a hail of bullets, forcing them to return fire triggering the shootout," said Guerrero Investigative Police chief Valentin Diaz.
Finally, the bullet-riddled body of a reporter for the weekly Vision Informativa, Evaristo Solis, 33, was found overnight in Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo, 100 kilometres (65 miles) northeast of Acapulco, local police said.
The states of Guerrero and neighbouring Michoacan are largely under the control of the vicious "La Familia" drug cartel, one of the most powerful trafficking groups in the country.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 14, 2010, 11:34