Mexico City, Feb 21 (EFE).- Two men and a woman were killed Tuesday just hours after their arrival at Topo Chico prison in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, a spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state government said.
The killings took place in close succession at around 6:45 a.m., Jorge Domene told radio stations.
Though he did not provide the victims' names, other sources identified them as Alan Josue Gonzalez, 24, Jorge Eduardo Gonzalez Salas, 18, and Dewin Vianey Rojas Martinez, 24. They were arrested earlier this month as suspected operatives of the Gulf drug cartel.
The three were stabbed to death by Eduardo Sanchez Contreras and Jesus Sandoval Gamez, Domene said.
The two men were in a holding area pending cell assignment at the time of their murder, while the woman was slain near the prison infirmary, the spokesman said.
Asked about prison guards' possible complicity with the killings, Domene said it was "somewhat premature" to suggest that.
The slayings at Topo Chico came two days after 44 Gulf cartel members were murdered at another prison in Nuevo Leon as part of a diversion mounted to cover the escape of 30 prisoners from the rival Los Zetas gang.
That incident unfolded in the early hours of Sunday morning at a penitentiary in the Monterrey suburb of Apodaca.
Nine Apodaca guards have confessed that they helped the 30 inmates escape and allowed Zetas gunmen inside the prison to kill the Gulf cartel members, Domene said late Monday.
