Gunmen kill 17 people at a drug rehab in Mexico - Las Vegas Sun

An official says gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center in northern Mexico and shot 17 people dead.

Prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval says the gunmen broke down the door of the El Alviane rehab center in Ciudad Juarez, lined their victims up against a wall and opened fire. At least five people are injured.


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My attorney was downstairs at the bar, talking to a sporty - looking cop about forty whose plastic name - tag said he was the DA from someplace in Georgia. "I'm a whiskey man, myself," he was saying. "We don't have much problem with drugs down where I come from."

"You will," said my attorney. "One of these nights you'll wake up and find a junkie tearing your bedroom apart."

"Naw!" said the Georgia man. "Not down in my parts." I joined them and ordered a tall glass of rum, with ice.

"You're another one of these California boys," he said. "Your friend here's been tellin' me about dope fiends."

"They're everywhere," I said. "Nobody's safe. And sure as not in the South. They like the warm weather."

"They work in pairs," said my attorney. "Sometimes in gangs. They'll climb right into your bedroom and sit on your chest, with big Bowie knives." He nodded solemnly. '"They might even sit your wife’s chest - put the blade right down on her throat.”

“Jesus god almighty,” said the southerner. "What the hell's goin’ on in this country?”

"You'd never believe it," said my attorney. "In L.A. it's out of control. First it was drugs, now it's witchcraft."




The Georgia man whacked his fist on the bar. "But we can't just lock ourselves in the house and be prisoners!" he exclaimed. "We don't even know who these people are! How do you recognize them?

"You can't," my attorney replied. "The only way to do it is to take the bull by the horns - go to the mat with this scum!"

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"You know what I mean," said my attorney. "We've done it before, and we can damn well do it again.”

"Cut their goddamn heads off," I said. "Every one of them. That's what we're doing in California."

“What?”

"Sure," said my attorney. "It's all on the Q.T., but everybody who matters is with us all the way down the line."

"God! I had no idea it was that bad out there!" said our friend.

“We keep it quiet," I said. "It's not the kind of thing you'd to talk about upstairs, for instance. Not with the press around.”

Our man agreed. "Hell no!" he said. "We'd never hear the goddamn end of it."



FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS