Mexican army, feds raid casinos after arson attack

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By PORFIRIO IBARRA RAMIREZ and KATHERINE CORCORAN

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - Hundreds of soldiers and federal agents are raiding casinos in this northern city, authorities said Saturday, two days after an arson attack on a gambling house killed 52 people and stunned a country that had become numb to massacres and beheadings.

Security forces had so far confiscated about 1,500 slot machines at 11 casinos in Monterrey and its surroundings and arrested three people, Mexico's tax agency said. It said the continuing operation was meant to verify whether casinos had paid taxes or introduced slot machines illegally.

Thursday's arson attack by gunmen was a macabre milestone in a conflict that the government says has claimed more than 35,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006. Others put the death toll near 40,000.

The torching of the Casino Royale has raised questions over Mexico's regulatory controls for fast-spreading gambling houses.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110827/D9PCNU681.html

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A soldier holds a machine gun outside a casino in Monterrey, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011. According to an official of Mexico's Attorney General's Office soldiers and federal agents have confiscated hundreds of slot machines at five casinos in Monterrey. A surveillance tape showed eight or nine men arriving in four cars Thursday at the Casino Royale in Monterrey and setting fire to the building, trapping dozens of people inside and killing at least 52 people. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

[pam4water]

1. They closing the barn doors after the horse were and went about waiting for the cows to come home.

[daleo]

2. It seems like a strange response

"There's been a mass murder at a casino."

"Well, make sure the gambling machines are legal then."