A prominent restaurant owner in the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora, was gunned down Thursday.
At 1 p.m., Sergio Ramírez Limón was killed outside his La Reforma restaurant, the newspaper El Imparcial reported.
He was riding in a GMC Sierra pickup on his way to the restaurant when assailants opened fire, hitting him three times in the chest, the newspaper said.
The shooting occurred in Agua Prieta, the sister city to Douglas, at the intersection of Calle 5 and Avenida 21. Reports indicate the assailants were in a black pickup.
Ramírez Limón was also the owner of the baseball team Vaqueros de Agua Prieta, according to the newspaper.
It was the latest act of drug-related violence in a bloody year in Northern Sonora.
On Feb. 26, the police chief in Agua Prieta, Ramon Tacho Verdugo, 49, was killed by a hail of bullets fired as he left the police station.
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On March 2, Tacho's brother, Roberto Tacho Verdugo, 52, was arrested by U.S. authorities while reportedly trying to smuggle 59 pounds of marijuana into the country in the gas tank of the van he was driving.
He has been charged in federal court in Tucson with possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
On April 23, Agua Prieta journalist Saúl Martínez Ortega was found dead six days after he was kidnapped by an armed gang in front of the police station.
On May 16 in Cananea, a town about 30 miles south of the U.S. border, 50 armed men drove into town and killed five policemen and two residents.
The attackers fled to the hills, pursued by police and soldiers, and 24 gunmen were killed in the ensuing gunbattles, officials said.
On Aug. 15, a group of 20 gunmen arrived in Cananea and opened fire on a house in an area called Colonia Minera, killing two people.
