19 Mexicans shot dead near cocaine-smuggling port

NINETEEN MEXICANS, including women and children, were apparently lined up against a wall and shot at a farm near Ensenada, south of the US border at San Diego, Mexican television reported yesterday.

A Televisa network reporter at the scene said he saw the bloodied bodies slumped by the wall. Mounds of spent cartridge cases from what were thought to be AK47 assault rifles littered the area. "I've never seen anything like this before. It's shocking," said the reporter, Jaime Nieto.

Some reports said all the victims had been living in three houses on a cattle ranch nearby. There were other reports of two survivors in the area, but this could not be confirmed.

The Mexican authorities have now expelled reporters from the scene without offering any further information, the television station said.

Ensenada is a port city about 50 miles south of the border, lying between San Diego in southern California and Tijuana, in the Mexican state of Baja California.

The area is a major smuggling point for cocaine - some believed to be from South America. Both the US and the Mexican authorities say that this trade is largely controlled by the Arellano Felix family.

The clan is considered one of the most violent drug gangs in Mexico.