Pubdate: Tue, 06 Mar 2007
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2007 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5

'NARCO' TAXI TOURS PROFIT ON MEXICO DRUG WAR CHAOS

Streetwise cabbies in northern Mexico are cashing in on the chaos of 
a violent drug war by whisking wide-eyed visitors about town in 
macabre tours of seized narco properties and famous murder scenes, 
Mexico City's Reforma newspaper reported on Sunday.

Taxi drivers in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan satisfy tourists' 
ghoulish fascination with a battle between cartels that killed 2,000 
people last year, for about 200 pesos ($18) a trip, the newspaper said.

Located in the state of Sinaloa, one of the worst hit by recent 
violence in the war between an alliance of local traffickers and the 
powerful Gulf Cartel, Mazatlan has its fair share of historic drug 
violence "must-sees."

A boarded up discotheque on Mazatlan's beach front, once the property 
of the Arellano Felix brothers, who ran a fierce cartel that was once 
Mexico's most powerful but is now said to be largely dismantled, is 
the starting point for most tours, Reform reported.

Then comes the spot on the nearby street where police shot dead 
cartel brother Ramon Arellano Felix in 2002.

Other stops include the nightclub where murdered "norteno" singer 
Valentin Elizalde, whose songs recounted traffickers' dastardly 
deeds, reportedly first played in Mazatlan.

Elizalde, known as "El Gallo de Oro," or the Golden Rooster, was 
gunned down last year in a drive-by shooting after a concert in 
Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas.

The city of Matamoros across the border from Brownsville, Texas, is 
the domain of the notorious Gulf Cartel, whose jailed leader Osiel 
Cardenas was extradited to the United States in January as part of 
Calderon's anti-drug drive.

The most popular sight for tours in that city is the spot where 
Cardenas was arrested in 2003 after a shootout with Mexican soldiers, 
Reforma reported.
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