Tamaulipas is among Mexico's most violent states and is currently enduring a wave of deadly attacks blamed on drug cartels.
The military seized 21 rifles, about 6,600 rounds of ammunition, and four trucks including one bearing Ministry of Defense markings, the navy said.
On June 7, 55 bodies were uncovered in a mass grave outside a mine in the southern state of Guerrero, the largest find of its kind in Mexico.
MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Troops uncovered at least 72 bodies, including those of 14 women, on a ranch in northeastern Mexico after a clash with gunmen, the Mexican military said early Wednesday.
Tamaulipas,Lacoste, which borders the southern US state of Texas, is the scene of brutal confrontations between the Gulf drug cartel and its former allies,Boss, the Zetas, as they fight for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.
Mass graves have been turning up with increasing frequency in Mexico's drug war, which has claimed the lives of an estimated 28,000 people since 2006 despite a military show of force in Mexican cities by the government of President Felipe Calderon.
Last week Calderon criticized the US government, accusing it of failing to forcefully tackle drug addiction in the United States and neglecting to rein in the arms industry — two key elements in tackling Mexican narcotrafficking.
Texas officials including Governor Rick Perry have complained that at least twice in the last two months, bullets believed to be from a gun battle in Mexico hit buildings in the US state.
The operation, which included military air support, netted one "underage suspect," but the rest of the gunmen who were not killed managed to escape.
Perry said the federal government's failure to reinforce the border with Mexico was endangering US lives.
The ranch where the mass grave was discovered is a few dozen miles (kilometers) from the US border.
The navy said "the lifeless bodies of 72 people were found" after the military went to the ranch when a man suffering from gunshot wounds approached a nearby military checkpoint and said he had been attacked on the ranch by members of a drug gang.
He has repeatedly said that arms trafficked across the border from the United States supply Mexico's brutal drug gangs with the weapons they use in gruesome violence that has claimed tens of thousands of Mexican lives.
On July 23, 51 bodies were found in a residential area on the outskirts of Monterrey, the capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon.
The gruesome find came after a shootout between troops and suspected drug traffickers near the town of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state, in which one member of the military and three gunmen were killed, according to the Mexican Navy.
Tags: Boss,
Lacoste —