A prison break in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez left 17 people dead and allowed 25 inmates to escape in a revival of the penitentiary-system violence that paralyzed the U.S. bordering city last year.
The attack on Sunday was led by armed intruders who broke into the prison in the same city where violence between rival gangs left civilians dead in August. State authorities are investigating the case and looking for the escaped leader of the criminal group Los Mexicles, the federal government said.
In remarks to the press Monday, National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said “there was overpopulation at the prison” and that state authorities could have filed a petition to move excess inmates through a federal program.
