Military: Indigenous women used for drug transport

Two indigenous women from the state of Nayarit were arrested and charged with transporting opiates in Mazatlan on Monday, the Sinaloan press reported.
El Sol de Mazatlan cites military sources who say that drug gangs are now using such indigenous women as "mules" (people who transport drugs).
The two women, Marina and Elvira Lopez, were found with almost 28 kilograms of opiates and about 33,000 pesos. El Debate reports that the drugs were found in a coffee-colored handbag between two seats, as well as in a black bag under a seat.
El Sol reports that the women said they did not know they were carrying drugs. They boarded a bus from La Mesa del Nayar on Sunday afternoon that was stopped at a Villa Union military checkpoint. El Sol added that the women told authorities that each of them was paid 3,000 pesos to transport the goods.
You can see a soldier standing beside a red-clothed table with at least 10 packets of the white substance, plus an additional amount beside the packets, in a photo on the El Sol website. The El Debate website has a photo of the bus.

Armed groups clash near Culiacan

Armed groups battled in two municipalities near Culiacan, Sinaloa, on Thursday morning, with reports indicating between seven to 10 people dead.
It seems that there were several clashes. The first took place between 3 and 3:30 a.m. in the municipality of Guamuchil. Media reports differ on the details but indicate that the assailants -- "part of an armed group," El Sol de Sinaloa reports -- targeted police cars (about 10 vehicles shot) and municipal buildings (including a Salvador Alvarado police station) with four people slain by bullets.
The group that launched the attack subsequently encountered a rival gang, and the two groups clashed a few times on the highways from Guamuchil to Guasave. The streets were strewn with the remains of the carnage: three dead and almost 10 vehicles abandoned (El Sol de Sinaloa has concrete details on six).
El Sol further reports that elements of the Army have already seized 46 AK-47 cartridges, four hand grenades and an amount of marijuana, and calls the gangs "rival groups working for organized crime and narcotrafficking cartels."