Soldiers free 14 kidnapped in northern Mexico

Monterrey, Agency
Army troops on patrol on a highway in the northern Mexican border state of Coahuila rescued 14 people kidnapped by members of an organized crime group, prosecutors said.

The soldiers noticed that the driver of an SUV traveling on the Pedro-La Cuchilla highway appeared nervous when he spotted the military convoy and decided to inspect the vehicle.

The army troops found nine men and five women who had been gagged and handcuffed inside the vehicle, the Coahuila state Attorney General's Office said.

The vehicle's driver was arrested and handed over to prosecutors, the AG's office said.

Gunmen from rival gangs, meanwhile, engaged in a shootout Tuesday in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon, leaving one person dead and several vehicles badly damaged.

A large group of Federal Police officers and army troops responded to the shootout in the southern section of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, officials said.

More than 150 soldiers, marines, Federal Police officers and state police descended on Luis Elizondo Avenue after receiving a report that shots had been fired near a television station.

Armed men riding in SUVs and automobiles engaged in a shootout that lasted about 15 minutes, eyewitnesses said.

Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Tamaulipas states are experiencing a wave of violence blamed on the war between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas.

The violence has escalated since the appearance in February in Monterrey of giant banners heralding an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia Michoacana drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group's involvement in kidnappings, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting "true drug traffickers" in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans willing to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.

More than 500 people have died in the drug war in Nuevo Leon this year.