Drug violence in southern state leaves 25 dead

AFP - Drug-related violence left 25 people dead Saturday in Mexico's southern Guerrero state, including four people who were decapitated, authorities said.
   
Two bodies of decapitated men were found overnight on Scenic Avenue in downtown Acapulco and the two decapitations were found west of the resort city, officials said.
   
Four other civilians were also found dead in and around Acapulco.
   
The five police officers were shot to death by a lone gunmen in nearby Tulchingo, the officials added.
   
In Ajuchitlan del Progreso, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Acapulco, 11 presumed drug traffickers were killed in a shootout with an army unit during a raid on a home.
   
Soldiers knocked on the door and "were greeted with a hail of bullets, forcing them to return fire triggering the shootout," said Guerrero Investigative Police chief Valentin Diaz.
   
Finally, the bullet-riddled body of a reporter for the weekly Vision Informativa, Evaristo Solis, 33, was found overnight in Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo, 100 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of Acapulco, local police said.
   
The states of Guerrero and neighboring Michoacan are largely under the control of the vicious "La Familia" drug cartel, one of the most powerful trafficking groups in the country.
   
Rival drug cartels are fighting deadly battles over lucrative drug routes to the north into the United States.
   
Drug-related crime has left more than 15,000 dead in the past three years in Mexico, despite a nationwide clampdown on the growing violence involving the deployment of some 50,000 government troops.