Report says Mexico state officials ignored massacre

MEXICO CITY (AP) – A new government-backed report says that revenge-minded drug gang bosses sent gunmen to kill dozens – perhaps hundreds – of people in a town near the Texas border. But state and federal officials ignored the massacre for years.

The report sponsored by the federal agency to aid crime victims says the delayed investigation makes it impossible to determine how many people died in the town of Allende in 2011.

The Coahuila state file lists 42 missing people related to the case. But a Zeta drug gang member told a U.S. court that 300 died, though it’s not clear if all the deaths occurred in the same incident.

A witness testified that many of the bodies of victims were incinerated and dissolved in chemicals, making identification of remains almost impossible.