Authorities in Mexico have arrested 29 officials of a prison where a deadly riot resulted in the death of dozens of inmates and a jail-break early this week, media reports citing officials said late on Wednesday.
Those arrested in connection with the riot and the escape of 30 prisoners included director of the high-security Apodaca state prison, Geronimo Martinez, as well as his deputy Juan Hernandez and 27 security guards at the facility located outside the northern city of Monterrey.
All of them were suspected of colluding in the inter-gang fighting that resulted in the jail-break by unlocking the doors separating the blocks that housed the rival gangs. They were accused of plotting with the Zetas gang to massacre members of the rival Gulf Cartel and using the riot as a cover for some gang members to escape.
They were suspended and questioned on Monday over the country's deadliest prison violence in at least 25 years. Some reports indicate that at least nine guards confessed to aiding the Zetas gang in the massacre of their rivals and subsequent jail-break.
"An investigation has discovered direct participation in the riot and that others helped in the escape. We can deduce that this was not just a gang fight, but rather homicides committed in a direct attack on certain persons who were detained there," Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Adrian de la Garza said.
The development comes four days after members of the Zeta gang attacked inmates belonging to the rival Gulf Cartel with stones and other home-made weapons in the Apodaca state prison. At least 44 members of the Gulf Cartel were massacred in the fighting, which also led to 30 Zetas gang members escaping from the facility.
Notably, no fire arms were used in the fighting and most victims were either stabbed, strangled or beaten to death. A reward of up to $775,000 has been announced for any information leading to the capture of the escaped prisoners. Mexico's Human Rights Commission has initiated its own investigation.
Nuevo Leon State Governor Rodrigo Medina said on Monday that the riot culminating in the jail-break was the result of "treachery," and pointed out that there were no signs of criminals breaking into the prison for freeing their fellow gang members.
The Apodaca prison was holding more than 2,500 inmates against the designed accommodation for 1,500 when the riot broke out. Mexican jail officials had often complained in the past that facilities were too inadequate to hold such a large number of prisoners.
Such fights between prisoners often break out in Mexico's overcrowded prisons, including the one at a jail in the city of Altamira in the northern state of Tamaulipas earlier this year. At least 31 inmates were killed in that fighting, which also involved the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
The two gangs are presently engaged in a fierce turf war for the control of the lucrative smuggling routes to the United States. They were largely blamed for most of the recent drug-related violence in eastern Mexico and the northern border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
The Mexican government says that more than 45,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the country since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug gangs after taking office in December 2006.
Besides fighting drug cartels, Calderon has deployed thousands of troops across the country to check drug-related violence and launched a massive anti-corruption drive named 'Operation Clean-up' to identify and punish public servants having links with drug cartels.
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