Drug cartel blamed as armed 'police' free 50 inmates

Mexican authorities are conducting a massive manhunt after more than 50 inmates were freed in one of the most daring prison escapes in the country's escalating drug wars.

Armed men claiming to be police officers swarmed the prison in the northern state of Zacatecas in the early hours of yesterday morning.

They arrived in a convoy of at least 10 vehicles with police markings and - according to some reports - in a helicopter, claiming to prison guards that they were conducting an authorised transfer of prisoners.

Not a single shot was fired.

Suspicions immediately fell on the notorious Gulf cartel of drug traffickers, since more than two dozen of the 53 inmates taken had links to the cartel.

Not only did the audacity of the raid underscore once again the wealth and sophistication of the Mexican drug cartels, but it also raised concern about institutional corruption.

Amalia Garcia Medina, the state governor, suggested that the raiders may have had assistance from some prison guards.

"It's clear to us that it was a perfectly planned operation with inside help because it lasted just five minutes and not one shot was fired," the governor said.

The army was helping the federal police search for the missing inmates and the perpetrators, closing roads and putting up checkpoints across the state.

Meanwhile the 40 guards, two police commanders and the prison director who were on duty at the time were detained for questioning.

Investigators were examining CCTV footage from inside and outside the prison, Ms Garcia said.

"This will not go unpunished. The investigations will be conducted with the full weight of the law to their last consequences."

The raid happened at the Cieneguillas prison, which houses 1,500 inmates, at about 5am on Saturday morning.

The escape is an embarrassing blow for Felipe Calderon, the President of Mexico, whose tenure has been shaped by a crackdown on drug trafficking.

The violence associated with trafficking has killed more than 10,750 people since he took office in December 2006.

Despite the arrests of more than 300 cartel members, most of the leaders of the operations are still at large and police and prison corruption has emerged as one of the key obstacles in the authorities' war against them.

The Gulf cartel believed to be behind the Zacatecas breakout over the weekend is one of the country's richest and most violent, supplying the US$5.5bn-a-year US cocaine market.

Governor Garcia said the jailbreak may have been revenge for the recent arrests of drug gang members and the seizure of guns and narcotics by the state police.

- INDEPENDENT