Drug violence pushes north of border

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Drug gangs along the U.S.-Mexico border are extending into Texas, Arizona and California to victimize citizens and immigrants alike, it was reported Sunday.

The violence, felt most in Texas and Arizona, is fueled by a Mexican drug war that includes taking hostages, engaging in daytime gun battles and hiring teenage hit men, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Rival gangs are hijacking each other's drug shipments and vans carrying illegal workers, while fires are being set in national forests to divert authorities, the Times reported.

In Phoenix, police are investigating the deaths of 13 people kidnapped and executed in the desert, while police in Dallas report nearly two dozen teenagers have died from overdoses in the last two years, the Times reported. In Southern California, police regularly encounter smugglers driving immigrant-filed cars, the Times reported.

Jennifer Allen, director of Border Action Network, a Tucson nonprofit that supports immigrants' rights, said smugglers are more sophisticated.

"The smugglers are no longer mom-and-pop organizations. Now it's an industry," she said.