Gunmen kill 5 in drug rehabilitation center in Mexico, escape by using irons to puncture security forces’ tires

Armed attackers attacked a drug rehabilitation center in Mexico, killing four people and injuring five, local authorities said Wednesday.

The attack took place in Salamanca in central Guanajuato state on Tuesday night, the municipal government said in a statement.

Police and the National Guard “launched a manhunt to find those involved,” but the assailants escaped by throwing metal tools to puncture the tires of pursuing security forces, the report said.

Police said three bodies of the deceased were found inside the correctional facility while the fourth was found on the street.

No suspects have been arrested yet.

Conflicts between drug gangs have led to many raids on rescue centers in Mexico.

Authorities say some correctional facilities are used as safe havens for suspected gangs, who are attacked by their rivals if found.

In July 2022, six people were shot and killed at a drug rehabilitation center near the western Mexican city of Guadalajara. Two years before that, the men were armed with wool raid a drug rehabilitation center in the center of the city of Irapuato and 27 people died.

Guanajuato is the most violent state in Mexico, according to official homicide statistics, due to the war between the local Santa Rosa de Lima cartel and the powerful Jalisco New Generation. Last month, i The US punished the man known as “The Tank” for allegedly leading the Jalisco company’s fuel theft unit, which makes tens of millions of dollars a year by selling stolen fuel through a series of seemingly legitimate businesses.

Mexico has recorded more than 450,000 murders since December 2006, when the military’s anti-drug campaign was launched.

The violence continued after Claudia Sheinbaum took office on Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president in more than 200 years of independence.