17 inmates, 4 guards flee Reynosa lockup

MONTERREY, Mexico — Seventeen detainees at a penitentiary in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, escaped through the lockup’s front door before daybreak Thursday, authorities said.

No shots were fired, and four prison guards suspected of facilitating the escape disappeared with the prisoners, authorities said.

Authorities did not say what types of crimes the escapees were jailed for or if any were considered dangerous, saying only that 13 were held in relation to federal offenses and four in state jurisdiction cases.

Federal offenses include narcotics, weapons and organized crime charges. State offenses range from petty theft to murder.

Prisoners in Mexico are often held while under investigation or on trial.

In the latest of a string of problems at Mexican penitentiaries, the prisoners escaped “through the front door of the (penitentiary) of Reynosa in complicity with four guards who went with them,” according to a statement from the Public Security Secretariat of Tamaulipas, the border state that runs the prison.

Wednesday, prisoners rioted for a second time in two days at a Monterrey state prison, in a dispute between prisoners facing extortion from organized crime gang members, authorities said.

Local media reported the Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf narcotics cartel, were behind the riots, but authorities declined to name the group involved.

In September, more than 20 people died in riots in a Tijuana penitentiary

source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/17_inmates_4_guards_flee_Reynosa_lockup.html