CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Neighbors mopped blood from the sidewalk outside a drug rehabilitation center Thursday, cleaning up the carnage after gunmen lined up patients against a wall and then riddled them with bullets, killing 18.
It was the third attack on a drug treatment center in Ciudad Juárez. Chihuahua state authorities said Thursday that they were investigating reports that the centers have turned into hideouts for drug smugglers being sought by police and hit men from rival gangs.
Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s top law enforcement official, said rehab clinics were also being used as recruiting and training centers by drug cartels.
He told The Associated Press that a recently detained drug suspect belonging to the La Familia cartel oversaw various private, nonprofit drug rehab centers across western Michoacan state. The suspect, Rafael Cedeno, claimed to have trained 9,000 recruits for the cartel in 2008.
“We’re checking to see if there is a link with what we’ve found” in Michoacan,” Garcia Luna said.
Garcia Luna said that in Michoacan, Cedeno’s rehab centers held retreats to train members, and if addicts did not cooperate, they were executed. He said the La Familia gang preferred recovered addicts because they were less likely to touch the drug loads.
Scores of rehabilitation centers have opened in recent years. Most aren’t guarded or regulated.
Bloody footprints tracked from the door of the humble cinder-block Aliviane center remained Thursday as federal police and soldiers stood guard. El Paso can be seen just across the U.S. border.
At 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, about eight gunmen broke down a door at the center, lined their victims against a wall and shot them dead, authorities said. Gonzalez said one man died Thursday and another remained hospitalized.
Little information about the victims was available. Sobbing mothers and wives gathered outside the prosecutors’ offices to demand answers and find out whether their loved ones were among the dead.
Elisabeth Quintero, 32, said she lost her son, 16; her younger brother, 28; and her cousin, 21. “They have said nothing,” Quintero said. “Just that somebody killed them.”
Quintero declined to give details about her relatives’ addiction problems, saying only that the men checked in to straighten themselves out.
Jaime Valle was at a loss as to why his 17-year- old son, Jaime Saul Perez, was gunned down just as he was trying to turn his life around by seeking help for marijuana abuse.
He said his son had never been in trouble, except for smoking pot, and had been expected to finish his treatment and return home this weekend.
“I want justice!” Valle yelled. “Kill those ungrateful dogs that are going around killing innocent people. Justice! I want justice!”
