Traffickers Suspected in Killings Near Prison

MATAMOROS, Mexico — Officials said Friday that drug traffickers probably were behind the slayings of six Mexican prison employees and said the victims were specifically chosen.

Federal prisons temporarily suspended all visits by relatives.

In a news conference in Matamoros, prosecutor Marco Antonio Ramirez said a group of assassins, dressed in black, set up a roadblock near the prison, stopping only the victims’ cars and allowing others to pass. It was unclear why they were targeted.

They were a computer systems technician, two electrical technicians, a guard commander and two drivers.

Federal officials have described recent killings as a challenge to President Vicente Fox’s crackdown on the drug trade. He pledged Thursday to “wage ... battles against organized crime, drug trafficking, and now within the federal prisons.”