The state security agency said two traffic police were gunned down, along with the wife and child of one of the policemen, as they drove through the northeastern border state of Nuevo Leon on Wednesday.
Another three people, apparently minors, were killed in a shooting in the state capital Monterrey, and the remainder were shot dead in separate incidents elsewhere in the state.
Nearly 35,000 people have been killed in clashes between rival drug gangs and in security operations since President Felipe Calderon launched a major military offensive against powerful drug cartels in 2006.
Nuevo Leon, which lies along lucrative trade routes to the massive US drug market, has seen an uptick in violence since 2009, when the formerly allied Zetas and Gulf cartels split.(*)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
