MONTERREY: Gunmen killed a Mexican general sent by the government to tame violence in a northern state plagued by drug cartel crimes along the US border, authorities said Monday.
General Ricardo Cesar Nino Villarreal and his wife were killed as they drove Saturday in Vallecillo, in the northern state of Nuevo Leon.
But their two-door car and the bodies were found only Sunday by people who were driving by on the road linking the cities of Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo, said the security task force of the neighboring state of Tamaulipas.
More than 100 high-caliber bullet casings were found at the scene of the shooting, officials said.
Nino Villarreal was one of four military officers who was deployed by the federal government in May to stem a surge of violence in Tamaulipas.
The general was in charge of a northern zone that includes Nuevo Laredo, a city bordering Texas which has been the scene of turf wars between cartels fighting over control of the lucrative drug trafficking routes. (AFP)
