85 inmates escape from Mexican jail on US border

NUEVO LAREDO, Sept 11, 2010 (AFP) - Eighty-five inmates escaped Friday from a jail in the Mexican city of Reynosa, on the border with the US state of Texas, in the largest prison breakout here in recent years, officials said.

The prisoners appeared to have escaped without a fight, and authorities were probing the possible involvement of two missing prison guards and 44 other employees, including the prison's director, said Antonio Garza, head of Tamaulipas state police.

"We're still carrying out investigations, but for now we can confirm that there were 66 prisoners under federal jurisdiction and the rest were under common jurisdiction," Garza said of the escapees.

A government official earlier said the prisoners had been held for various crimes, including drug trafficking, in the jail in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

The northeastern state of Tamaulipas has seen some of Mexico's worst drug violence in recent months as two formerly allied drug gangs, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, fight for control of the area's key trafficking routes into the United States.

Breakouts and deadly riots are quite common in Mexican jails, where violent drug gangs often maintain influence.

Some 200 prisoners have escaped from Tamaulipas jails alone this year, according to Garza.

Armed attackers helped thirteen prisoners escape from a Reynosa prison in April and 41 prisoners escaped, along with two guards, from a jail in Matamoros, also in Tamaulipas, in March.

Friday's breakout was the largest in recent years, exceeding the 53 prisoners who escaped from a jail in Zacatecas, northern Mexico, last year.

Authorities in June meanwhile accused a prison director in the northern city of Gomez Palacio of allowing prisoners out to commit crimes with weapons from prison guards.