MEXICO CITY, July 14 (UPI) -- A dozen people tortured, killed and dumped along a road in western Mexico were federal agents targeted by a drug cartel, authorities said Tuesday.
Mexican authorities blamed La Familia, an extraordinarily violent drug cartel, for killing the agents -- 11 men and one woman -- whose bodies were found in Michoacan state Monday.
The Washington Post reported the agents had been investigating organized crime in Michoacan, the site of coordinated attacks last week in which three police officers and two soldiers were killed.
The killings of the federal agents marked the highest single-day death toll for agents in a 3-year-old drug war, the Post said.
Authorities said the latest killings were believed to have been in retaliation for the arrest Friday of suspected drug boss Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a senior member of La Familia.
Nearly 11,000 people have died since 2006 in territorial fights by drug gangs and government crackdowns after President Felipe Calderon launched his anti-drug campaign by sending 45,000 troops to hot-spot drug areas. The U.S. Defense Department has warned that Mexico is close to becoming a failed state because of drug lawlessness.
The Post said La Familia is fighting for control of cocaine smuggling routes into the United States and that the cartel operates methamphetamine labs and marijuana farms.
