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Officials questioned after huge jailbreak

REYNOSA, Mexico, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Authorities questioned prison personnel, including the director, after 85 inmates escaped a prison in Reynosa, Mexico, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Prisoners made it over the fence of the state prison in Tamaulipas state near the U.S. border using ladders early Friday. In August, 40 inmates broke out a nearby prison in Matamoros.

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Many of the prisoners are involved in drug trafficking or have been arrested for violent crimes related to the war on drugs, which has taken 28,000 lives in Mexico since 2007.

There is widespread suspicion that prison personnel have been involved in the escapes. Prosecutors charged prison officials in Durango this summer with permitting inmates to leave at night.

Prosecutors charged the prison officials with supplying weapons to the prisoners, who would leave at night to do contract killings, then return in the morning.

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