At Least 53 Killed in Mexico Casino.

On Aug 26, 2:40*am, "Viktor Slovak"
wrote:
MEXICO CITY—In what Mexican officials have called an "act of
terror," a half dozen gunmen burst into a casino in Mexico's
industrial capital of Monterrey Thursday, sprayed the place with
gasoline, and started a fire in the bingo section, killing at
least 53 people.

Speaking to Monterrey's leading newspaper El Norte, Nuevo León
Gov. Rodrigo Medina said that at least 53 people had been killed
in the attack, making it the bloodiest attack suffered by this
prosperous city, which has been rocked by spiraling drug
violence in the last year. Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo
León state.

Officials said they expected the death toll to continue to climb
in what appeared to be an attack linked to warring drug cartels,
although there was no immediate information linking the massacre
to drug traffickers. Up to 80 people were in the casino when it
was attacked.

"Six hooded gunmen came in, shouting obscenities and firing
their guns," said a person at the scene who asked not to be
named. "They drenched the place with gasoline. People were
running as the place went up in flames. Those who stayed behind
burned to death."

Videos of the Casino Royale by local news channels showed a grim
scene of rescue workers dragging bodies out by their feet as
billowing clouds of black smoke came out of the building. One
fireman appeared to be attempting rescues from a crane. The
entrance to the casino was charred black and a sign reading
"Royale" stood beside it.

In a message on his Twitter account, President Felipe Calderón
condemned the mass killing. "With profound consternation I
express my solidarity with Nuevo León and the victims of this
aberrant act of terror and barbarity," Mr. Calderón wrote.

"An act of terrorism has been committed," said Alejandro Poiré,
the federal government's spokesman for security affairs. "This
act of terror will not remain unpunished."

The mention of "terror" has been a controversial one in Mexico's
drug wars, where officials have argued hard against terminology
suggesting an insurgency. In 2008, many feared that drug
traffickers would resort to conventional terrorist methods after
grenades were thrown into crowd gathered for Mexican
Independence Day, killing eight and wounding 131. Since then,
however, drug cartels have typically shied away from large-scale
attacks on the public.

Until recently, Monterrey was one of the safest cities in Latin
America. But since last year, the city has become a battleground
for two of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking
organizations, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, who are fighting
for control of lucrative local drug markets and drug routes to
the U.S.

El Norte newspaper quoted Jorge Camacho, the state's head of
civil defense, as saying rescue workers had found various bodies
in the casino's bathrooms where the victims had run for shelter.
Mr. Camacho said rescue workers were still searching for missing
victims, and the toll was expected to rise.

The massacre in the Casino Royale in an upper middle class area
of the city was the second such attack on an entertainment
center in the last two months in Monterrey. The attack on the
casino, located on one of Monterrey's main avenues, took place
at about 3:30 p.m. when six men drove up in two cars, officials
said.

In July, gunmen attacked a Monterrey bar with a reputation as a
drug distribution center, killing 21 people, most of them bar
workers. So far this year, more than 1,000 people have died in
drug-related violence in the state of Nuevo León.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...75404576531150
085042280.html

Well, it's a small begining! (can you picture those old farts
scrambling)