Carrillo Fuentes family Drug violence in Mexico has now become so pervasive that it is infecting even small communities

Tourists driving south from Texas to the Pacific Coast beaches pass through Villa Ahumada on Highway 45. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when this dusty town was best known for its roadside burrito stands, its good cheese and its having recorded of one of the coldest temperatures in Mexico: minus 30.4 Celsius (minus 23 Fahrenheit) in January 1962.In recent years, however, it also became a way station along a major drug smuggling route from the city of Chihuahua. Villa Ahumada is situated on the main highway about 130 kilometers, or 80 miles, south of Ciudad Juárez, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas.On May 17, dozens of men with assault rifles rolled into town in several trucks and shot up the place. They killed the police chief, two officers and three civilians. Then they carried off about 10 people, witnesses said. Only one has been found, dead and wrapped in a carpet in Ciudad Juárez.The entire municipal police force quit after the attack, and officials fled the town for several days, leaving so hastily that they did not release the petty criminals held in the town lockup. The state and federal governments sent in 300 troops and 16 state police officers, restoring an uneasy semblance of order. But townspeople remain terrified.
"Yeah, we're afraid; everyone's afraid," said José Antonio Contreras, a 17-year-old who was threatened by the gunmen. "Nobody goes out at night."Drug violence in Mexico has now become so pervasive that it is infecting even small communities like this one, which has fewer than 9,000 residents.Around the country in the past 18 months, more than 4,000 people have been killed in similar attacks and gun battles, even as President Felipe Calderón has tried to take back towns where the local police and officials were on the payroll of drug kingpins.

Last week, seven federal officers died in a gun battle with cartel henchmen when they tried to enter a house in Culiacán, Sinaloa, a city notorious for its traffickers. The officers had been sent to the city, along with 2,700 other soldiers and agents, to track down a reputed drug kingpin believed to have ordered the assassination of the acting federal chief of police, who was killed May 8 in Mexico City.

When the police arrived, banners were hung in the city taunting the officers and saying the reputed kingpin, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, reigned supreme in Culiacán.

In Villa Ahumada, people remained so cowed nearly two weeks after the massacre that even the mayor and his police commissioner declined requests to be interviewed. When asked who the gunmen were and why they came, most of the residents who were interviewed shook their heads and whispered that spies were everywhere. In private, however, some acknowledged that the town had long been home to narcotics traffickers in league with a reputed drug dealer, Pedro Sánchez Arras.

Frightened residents, who did not want to be identified, said Sánchez's agent in the town was Gerardo Gallegos Rodelo, a 19-year-old tough guy who went around with an armed posse. It was rumored that he and Sánchez had links with a drug cartel in Ciudad Juárez that is controlled by the Carrillo Fuentes family. Law enforcement officials did not confirm the claim.

Several residents said Gallegos and Sánchez had also seemed to enjoy good relations with the local police. People shrugged and tolerated the arrangement. The town was peaceful, after all, some said. It seemed best to leave well enough alone.

"Wherever you are in Mexico these days there are drug dealers, not just here," said Raúl Moreno, 64, a day laborer. "They didn't bother anyone. No one bothered them."

The trouble started, people say, when Gallegos was killed April 6 in a shootout with a group of reputed gangsters in Hidalgo del Parral, in the southern part of Chihuahua State.

Two days later, the army swooped in on his funeral in Villa Ahumada and arrested dozens of people in attendance, taking into custody a police commander, Adrián Barrón, among others. It remains unclear what charges will be filed against the suspects, the attorney general's office said.

On May 13, soldiers arrested Sánchez on drug trafficking charges in Hidalgo del Parral.The arrest seemed to set in motion the trouble in Villa Ahumada. Late on the Saturday night four days after Sánchez's arrest, said Contreras, he and several other boys were dancing at a party for a friend in a hall just off the main square when they heard the rat-tat-tat of machine-gun fire.

He hurriedly left the party with his girlfriend and mother, but they ran into three cars full of heavily armed men, he said. Spewing death threats, the men forced the three to lie on the ground. Contreras waited for the shots, but the cars roared off. One of the men called out, "We'll be back."

For three hours, the gunmen roamed the town in six pickups and sport utility cars. They attacked a used-car lot with bullets. They pumped more than 75 rounds into two men riding in a truck.

Privately, some residents speculate that the attackers came from a rival drug cartel intent on dislodging the Carrillo Fuentes gang from Ciudad Juárez and the cities along the route down through Chihuahua State to Sinaloa State. Some whisper that the commandos were sent by Joaquín Guzmán, or El Chapo, who is accused of being a drug kingpin. Others mention the Zetas, feared hired killers in the employ of the Gulf Cartel.

"They are getting rid of all the people connected to Pedro Sánchez," said one young man, insisting on anonymity for fear of the cartels. "All the police worked for Pedro."

The state authorities say they still have little information about what happened, much less whom the gunmen worked for. The fearful silence of residents makes it hard for investigators to make progress, Eduardo Esparza, a spokesman for the state attorney general, said.

"At this moment, we have no lines of investigation," he said. "It's hard to get information. The families of the victims refuse to talk, mainly out of terror. One can't advance at a good pace. There are lots of barriers."