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Mexico: Twenty people shot dead at clandestine cockfight as drug gang violence worsens

The town of Las Tinajas has seen rising violence as聽the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel fights聽local gangs for control of drug routes.

Soldiers patrolled in the local area after the shooting
Image: Soldiers patrolled in the local area after the shooting
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Twenty people were killed after gunmen opened fire at a clandestine cockfight in one of Mexico's worst shootings in recent years.

Seventeen men and three women were shot dead inside the venue in Las Tinajas in the western coastal state of Michoacan - one of the most lawless areas in Mexico - on Sunday.

All the victims had gunshot wounds, and the last of them died on his way to hospital, authorities said.

Four people were being treated for injuries.

The attackers apparently planned the shooting and entered in a stolen truck owned by a snack food company, according to prosecutors in Michoacan.

Army officers and state prosecutors arrived at the scene after the shooting. Pic: AP
Image: Army officers and state prosecutors arrived at the scene after the shooting. Pic: AP
Investigators at the scene where 20 people were shot dead
Image: Investigators at the scene where 20 people were shot dead

"The snack food company truck arrived, and several armed people in camouflage clothing got out," a prosecutors' statement said.

"At the same moment, a bus that was outside the building was used as a blockade," apparently to prevent victims from escaping or calling for help, the statement continued.

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Investigators found 15 vehicles that apparently belonged to the victims, one of which bore stickers with the logo of a criminal gang.

Prosecutors said drug cartels and other criminal gangs had been fighting in the area.

"There are indications that the attack involved a confrontation between criminal groups," the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement.

Police descended on the scene of the clandestine cockfight after the shooting. Pic: AP
Image: Police descended on the scene of the clandestine cockfight after the shooting. Pic: AP

"It was a massacre of one group by another," Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference, expressing his regret at the deaths.

Las Tinajas has seen rising violence as the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel fights local gangs for control of drug routes.

The fighting has included the use of bomb-dropping drones, landmines and homemade armoured cars.

Gang violence had been fuelling record levels of murder by the time President Obrador took office in late 2018, with a pledge to reduce organised crime using a less "confrontational approach".

But widespread trouble has persisted, and average annual murder totals are on track to be the highest under any Mexican administration since modern records began.

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Last month, the United States temporarily suspended shipments of avocados from Michoacan after its inspectors received death threats.

Avocado growers in the state - the only one in Mexico fully authorised to export to the US market - face extortion due to the constant drug cartel turf battles near their farms.

Cockfighting, while illegal in many areas, remains a popular pastime in parts of Mexico.

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