It was not immediately clear why the hitmen attacked the car washworkers, the state prosecutor’s office said. It denied media reportsthat the victims were recovering drug addicts.
Young, impoverished men who wash cars often work as street spies fordrug gangs. Convicted drug lord Osiel Cardenas, now imprisoned in Texas,started out washing cars for local drug bosses in Nuevo Laredo andworked his way up the Gulf cartel.
Nayarit, a coastal state with expensive beach resorts catering to UStourists, has remained a quiet corner of Mexico since Calderón launchedhis drug war in December 2006.
But the shootings underscore how killings have spread from the notoriously violent border region across the country.
Drug gangs La Familia, the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel, led by Mexico’smost-wanted man, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, are fighting over westernMexico. But the recent rash of massacres suggest that local gangs linkedto major cartels are fighting turf wars for control of criminal racketsrather than over smuggling routes into the United States.
The massacres have put renewed pressure on Calderón, who has vowed tobeat back the cartels but is struggling to defend his strategy as thedeath toll from his drug war surges.
A group of armed men attacked the main police station in Madero near theGulf of Mexico on Wednesday, injuring seven police officers and acivilian, police said.
In a televised security meeting, Calderón pledged to continue his fightand held a moment of silence for the victims of the attacks in Juarez,Tijuana and Tepic.
He also signalled the difficulty in explaining the recent murders, whichdiffer from traditional attacks on drug gang rivals over the past fewyears.
“These people are out of their minds. They are crazy and they are usingvery violent means to look for their own purposes,” Calderón said in aninterview with the BBC.Tweet
