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 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.
Nor was there any 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.
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 gold-plated, diamond-encrusted weapons believed to belong to the Valencia gang, allies of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, prosecutors said.
Photos of the weapons show that most of the 31 pistols found in a raid on a home in western Mexico had gold or silver-plated grips or glittered with diamonds — apparently flamboyant examples of the sort of gaudily customized weapons favored by some drug gangsters.
Three of the assault rifles are almost entirely gold-plated.
Identification documents were found at the home on the outskirts of the western city of Guadalajara in the name of Oscar Nava Valencia.
The Attorney General's Office said he is a leader of the Valencia gang who has worked with Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
And on Mexico's southern Pacific coast, the Mexican navy announced a big drug haul: It said a Mexican fishing boat and its five-member crew had been captured while transporting nearly 5,300 pounds (2,400 kilograms) of cocaine.
The 78-foot (24-meter) boat was detained on April 27 in international waters, based on information form U.S. officials. Authorities found 105 bales of cocaine in hidden compartments in the boat's fuel tanks.
The boat presumably picked up the drugs in Colombia.
On Sunday, police said they captured a man believed to be the leader of the Zetas drug gang in the southern state of Chiapas.
Prosecutors in neighboring Tabasco state said suspect Pablo Martinez Rojas was detained near the border with Chiapas, along with four alleged accomplices.
They said the suspects carried out killings and kidnappings for the Zetas, a gang founded by army deserters.
Three assault rifles and pistols were found in the men's possession.
It is considered a federal crime, but the Tabasco state authorities said the detentions show that state authorities are increasingly playing a role in combating drug gangs.
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