Two top drug traffickers killed near US border

Two top drug traffickers have been killed in pre-dawn shootouts on Saturday with federal forces in the northern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas, authorities reported.

The Tamaulipas security spokesperson's office said the men were killed in separate confrontations, which left highways littered with burned-out vehicles.

Julian Loisa Salinas, better known as "Comandante Toro", and also known as Juan Manuel Loisa Salinas, was killed in a clash with marines in Reynosa, a city across the border from McAllen, Texas.

Loisa Salinas reportedly was the Gulf cartel's local leader in Reynosa.

Authorities had tried to capture him several times, leading to gun battles with his gang. In early April, two US citizens were reported wounded in one such gunfight.

On Saturday, photos showed burned-out cars, trucks and buses littering streets in Reynosa. State authorities said his supporters had set fires and tried to block roads in an unsuccessful effort to help him escape.

Luis Alberto Rodriguez, the state security spokesperson, said there were a total of 32 highway and street blockades, 11 of which were erected using burning vehicles. Such vehicles are usually hijacked from their owners by armed men and then set on fire.

Nine businesses were burned and 18 vacant lots were set on fire.

Also on Saturday, the local leader for the rival Zetas cartel in Tamaulipas' capital, Ciudad Victoria, was killed in a similar shootout farther south.

He was tentatively identified as Francisco "Pancho" Carreon.

The two were believed to be behind much of the recent violence in Tamaulipas.