"Juárez in shock: Attack considered city's worst multiple shooting."

Here is an excerpt from Stephanie Sanchez and Daniel Borunda's article in the El Paso Times:

"The brutality of a massacre at Juárez drug rehabilitation center in which 18 people were killed shocked a city already plagued with record-breaking violence. A motive for the attack was under  investigation, but it appeared to be linked to feuding drug trafficking groups... The incident is at least the third and largest mass shooting at drug treatment centers in Juárez since last year. Shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday, an unknown number of gunmen with assault rifles burst into the Casa El Aliviane drug rehab center on 1243 Uranio, west of downtown Juárez near the Rio Grande across Downtown El Paso. The gunmen demanded all 20 people in the building line up in a hallway... The assailants then began firing their AK-47 rifles. Sixteen men died piled on each other at the scene. Four people were taken to a hospital in serious condition where two of them died a short time later. Officials had initially reported 19 people had died and six others were wounded. Officials said the other two wounded remained in serious condition... The Aztecas and their U.S.-based brethren the Barrio Azteca prison gang are known to run drug treatment centers for their members in Juárez, FBI agents have said. The gang is allied with La Linea, as the Juárez drug cartel is also known. 'I think the significance (in the drug rehab attack) is in the number of people killed but these were street-level people, (drug) users or gang members,' said Robert Almonte, executive director of the Texas Narcotics Officers Association. 'Why would anybody want to kill drug addicts? Because they are affiliated with a cartel,' Almonte said." Link to Full Article

Analysis: Originally when I first read this story, I was worried this was another case of tolerated collateral damage. Specifically, I though maybe two or three of the rehab patients were somehow affiliated with a rival cartel or gang, and the attackers killed everyone in a haphazard and sloppy fashion just to make sure they hit their marks. Then I read this little gem in the El Paso Times article:

"The Aztecas and their U.S.-based brethren the Barrio Azteca prison gang are known to run drug treatment centers for their members in Juárez, FBI agents have said. The gang is allied with La Linea, as the Juárez drug cartel is also known."

Apparently, drug addicts - being vulnerable and easily influenced in their state at rehab - are easy marks for DTOs and gangs looking for recruits. La Familia Michoacana, in particular, also likes to proselytize at rehab centers. So we can happily read about all the arrests and roundups of gang and DTO members in the Mexican dailies, all the while knowing that they're replenishing their ranks with addicts. Addicts who are later given drugs, then guns, then told to go kill people. And I wonder why hits in Mexico are getting more sloppy.