Gunmen Attack Mexico Rehab Center, at Least 10 Die

Police stand guard next to a man, who was presented as a witness to the attorney's office, at a crime scene in Tijuana, Oct. 24, 2010. Gunmen killed 13 people at a drug rehabilitation center late Sunday, according to local media.

(Jorge Duenes/Reuters)

Armed men burst into a drug rehab center in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and police said at least 10 people were killed in a city where officials had been celebrating a seeming drop in drug gang terror. A client at the center and local media reports Monday put the number of deaths at 13.

A witness, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jesus, for fear of reprisals, said he had stepped out for something to eat when the attacked occurred late Sunday.

When he returned, his fellow clients told him the attackers made the addicts lie on the floor, and then sprayed them with bullets, killing 13. Other clients sleeping upstairs in the center also survived. There are normally about 45 clients at the center.

Prosecutors had not yet confirmed the number of dead. Police at the scene said at least 10 were killed.

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It was the second massacre of the weekend in Mexico: 14 people were killed Friday night when gunmen stormed a birthday party in another border city, Ciudad Juarez.

The attack on the ramshackle, privately run center in Tijuana is the first such mass killing at a rehab center in the city, praised by some for its anti-gang efforts.

Several such attacks have killed dozens of recovering addicts Ciudad Juarez, and a voice was heard over a police radio frequency later saying "this is a taste of Juarez."

Just two weeks ago, President Felipe Calderon touted Tijuana as a success story in his nearly four-year-old drug war, noting during a festival to promote the city's industries that homicides are down from a peak in 2008.

Since his visit, drug gangs have resumed gruesome tactics not seen in the Tijuana for months, beheading rivals and hanging bodies from bridges. Some residents have expressed fear that the cartels are deliberating intensifying the violence to undermine Calderon's message.

The attack also comes about week after the government's record Oct. 18 seizure of 148 tons (134 metric tons) of marijuana in Tijuana.