Mexican drug hit men scrawl threats on corpses

Drug gang hit men killed three Mexican army informants on Tuesday and dumped them near a military training base close to the U.S. border, scrawling threats on the bodies in black ink, police said.

The three men, who police said gave the army regular tip-offs about drug gang activity in the Mexican city of Tijuana near San Diego, were strangled.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to Tijuana and other cities in Baja California, Mexico’s most violent state, to destroy two warring drug cartels and clean up corrupt local and state police forces.

But the army faces growing attacks from powerful drug gangs who are trying to bribe soldiers into siding with them with large sums of cash, threatening to blunt Calderon’s main weapon against the cartels.