| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Mexico Auctions Off Narco Booty
 Agence France-Presse
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November 20, 2010
| | This handout from the Mexico's Department of the Treasury(MDT) shows a 18k yellow gold ring, with a 3.5 ct Marquis cut diamond and 70 square-cut diamonds, one of the pieces offered during an auction of goods confiscated from drug traffickers and the customs of Mexico. | |
Mexico City — Mexican authorities Friday were auctioning off hundreds of items including luxury planes, cars and jewelry seized from drug traffickers, including a gold and diamond ring valued at 112,000 dollars.
Most of the goods were seized over the past five years during a brutal drug war that has claimed tens of thousands of victims. A branch of Mexico's Finance Ministry is tasked with managing the seized booty.
Dozens of enthusiasts descended on a hotel in downtown Mexico City to purchase gold-plated narco bling encrusted with jewels, including a white gold and diamond watch with skull, sombrero and guitar engravings which fetched 10,000 dollars.
Cessna leisure planes and Bell helicopters were also going under the hammer for the two-day auction beginning Thursday.
Another, more discreet gold watch sold for 70,000 dollars and a 12.5-carat diamond ring offered for 112,000 dollars found no buyers.
Thursday's sales grossed 1.7 million dollars.
Rival drug cartels are fighting a bloody battle in America's backyard for the control of trade routes to smuggle drugs into the lucrative US market.
But their fight also claims the lives of many bystanders and Mexico is filled with daily scenes of gore, including bodies decapitated, mutilated or hung from bridges to terrorize the population into submission.
Never has there been more bloodshed in Mexico since the revolution a century ago, with over 28,000 people killed over the past four years amid clashes among drug traffickers and with police and military troops.
But the 50,000 troops President Felipe Calderon has deployed in a nationwide clampdown have failed to stem the bloodshed so far.
On Wednesday alone, the Mexican army killed 11 alleged members of the powerful Zetas drug cartel close to the border with the US state of Texas. The cartel is suspected of having massacred 72 clandestine migrants in August, and killing two police officers and a local mayor.
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