Thirty members of a feared Mexican drug cartel were on the loose Tuesday after dozens of rival gang members were killed in a prison massacre apparently organized with the aid of authorities. The massacre early Sunday, in which 44 inmates were stabbed or bludgeoned to death, was apparently a grisly smokescreen planned to aid the escape, according to officials, who said nine wardens had confessed to taking part in the plot. The escaped prisoners were all from the Zetas drug gang, while those killed were all from the rival Gulf cartel. The two crime syndicates have been locked in a bloody turf battle since their alliance broke down in 2010. The massacre on Sunday in the Apodaca prison, an overcrowded facility 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Monterrey, the state capital of Nuevo Leon, was among the deadliest incidents in years in Mexico’s notoriously violent prisons. “Nine of the 18 (detained) guards said they were actively involved in the escape,” state security spokesman Jorge Domene said late Monday, calling it a “betrayal of public officials who allied themselves with the criminals.” He said the other nine guards and three senior prison officials were still being questioned. The escape took place between 1:00 am and 1:30 am (0700-0730 GMT) Sunday, followed by the attack on the inmates, which lasted around an hour and a half, until prison officials called for reinforcements, Domene said. Rodrigo Medina, governor of Nuevo Leon, had earlier released names and pictures of the fugitives, and posted rewards of up to 10 million pesos ($775,000) for information leading to their capture.
