According to local media, the attackers used a heavy vehicle to demolish an access to the prison facility, located in the state of Hidalgo.
An armed group assaulted a regional prison in the Mexican state of Hidalgo (center) on Wednesday to free nine inmates, local authorities reported.
The attack was recorded at dawn on Wednesday in the Tula prison – located 70km from Mexico City – and left at least two policemen injured, state authorities reported at a press conference.
“Nine people in confinement were escaped in this penitentiary. At dawn, a group of armed individuals broke into several vehicles, ”said Simón Vargas, Secretary of the Government of Hidalgo, at a press conference.
He explained that the attackers set fire to two vehicles in the city as a “distraction” element while they launched the assault on the prison.
Attack was carried out to rescue criminal leader
People convicted mainly of common crimes are held in the Tula prison. Vargas confirmed that among the nine inmates who escaped there are some accused of kidnapping.
This attack was carried out “to rescue the alleged founder of the criminal group Pueblos Unidos,” said a police source who asked not to be identified.
According to local media, the attackers used a heavy vehicle to demolish an access to the prison. Several television networks broadcast images of a burning vehicle in the city.
After the assault, state and federal forces deployed an operation in Tula, with some 30,000 inhabitants.
In January 2011, Tula was the scene of a car bomb explosion, in an attack that authorities attributed to the Los Zetas drug cartel and that left a police officer dead.
Mexico has long been hit by a wave of violence linked to organized crime. According to official figures, more than 300,000 murders have been registered since December 2006, when the federal government that was acting then launched a controversial anti-drug operation with the active participation of military forces. (I)
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