Mexico youth gang kills 3 teens in drug dispute

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico – A hit squad made up of two teenage girls, a boy and a woman has been detained for allegedly killing three boys aged 13, 14 and 15 in a poor neighbourhood of northern Mexico, authorities said Sunday.

A police official in the northern state of Tamaulipas said the killings in the state capital of Ciudad Victoria appeared related to a dispute over control of street-level drug dealing. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The purported youthful hit squad was said to be travelling in a van and shot their victims on the street late Saturday. A 17-year-old survived the shooting and was in serious condition at a hospital.

Mexico has seen child killers before, but seldom have teenage girls been involved in such crimes.

In 2010, a 14-year-old boy who was a U.S. citizen confessed to killing four people in Mexico. The victims’ beheaded bodies were found hanging from a bridge.