Ciudad Juarez, September 04: Neighbours mopped blood from the sidewalk outside a drug rehabilitation centre, cleaning up the carnage after gunmen lined up patients against a wall and then riddled them with bullets, killing 18.
It was the third attack on a drug treatment centre in Ciudad Juarez yesterday. Chihuahua state authorities said they were investigating reports that the centres have turned into hideouts for drug smugglers being sought by police and hit men from rival gangs.
Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s top law enforcement official, said rehab clinics were also being used as recruiting and training centres by drug cartels.
He said in an exclusive interview that a recently detained drug suspect belonging to the La Familia cartel oversaw various private, non-profit drug rehab centres across western Michoacan state. The suspect Rafael Cedeno claimed to have trained 9,000 recruits for the cartel in 2008.
“We’re checking to see if there is a link with what we’ve found (in Michoacan),” Garcia Luna said.
Garcia Luna said in Michoacan, Cedeno’s rehab centres held retreats to train members, and if addicts did not cooperate, they were executed. He said the La Familia gang preferred recovered addicts because they were less likely to touch the drug loads.
–Agencies