“A shootout near the U.S.-Mexico border between rival groups with ties to organized crime left 21 people dead Thursday, Mexican police officials said.

Two groups authorities believe were involved in drug and human trafficking clashed in a deserted area about 12 miles south of the border, Sonora State Police spokesman Jose Larrinaga Talamantes told CNN.

“Armed attacks on Mexican federal police Monday in violent Michoacan state sparked shootouts that killed at least 10 officers and an unknown number of gunmen, authorities said.

The twin ambushes in the city of Zitacuaro underscored anew the brazenness with which criminal groups have taken on Mexican security forces.

“Mexico had 85 deaths related to organized crime yesterday, the highest toll since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006, the Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported.

The last bloodiest day was on Nov. 3, 2008, with a death toll of 58 people, El Universal reported, using its own tally. The border state of Chihuahua was the most violent yesterday with 38 killings, including the execution-style shootings of 19 people in a drug rehabilitation center in the state capital of the same name.”

“An alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a dam along the Texas border — and unleash billions of gallons of water into a region with millions of civilians — sent American police, federal agents and disaster officials secretly scrambling last month to thwart such an attack, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

Whether or not the cartel, which is known to have stolen bulk quantities of gunpowder and dynamite, could have taken down the 5-mile-long Falcon Dam may never be known since the attack never came to pass.

It may have been derailed by a stepped-up presence by the Mexican military, which was acting in part on intelligence from the U.S. government, sources said.

“Chihuahua state police confirmed Tuesday that three of the four bodies found in the back of a pickup in east Juárez on Monday were those of U.S. citizens abducted during a wedding last week… All are from La Mesa, [New Mexico], in Doña Ana County… The Moraleses were kidnapped by gunmen who burst into the wedding ceremony Friday evening at El Señor de la Misericordia Catholic church… On Monday, Mexican police found four bodies with signs of torture in the covered bed of a Toyota Tacoma with Texas license plates… Their father said the wedding took place in Juárez because that is where the bride was raised. He said she is also a U.S. citizen… During the ceremony, a group of armed men arrived, ordered everyone to get down to the ground and kidnapped the victims. Rafael Morales said Mexican and U.S. authorities are assisting the family in the investigation… Chihuahua state police officials said the family did not file a kidnap report with the state police. They said an investigation into the slayings continues. No arrests have been made.”

(Source: Mexico’s Drug War: “Officials: 3 men kidnapped, murdered in Juárez were US citizens.”.)