Local police responding to a call late on Friday that a person had been executed in an industrial sector of Ciudad Juarez discovered a car full of explosives near the body, federal police said in a statement.

Specialists removed most of the explosives from the car and then used a controlled explosion to eliminate any other threat, the police said. No one was injured in the operation, police said.

Mexican drug gangs often target security forces in their bloody campaign to control smuggling routes but incidents involving explosives in cars have become increasingly common.

Four people were killed in July in Ciudad Juarez by a bomb planted in a car, the first such attack since President Felipe Calderon took office in December, 2006.

There were two more small-scale attacks in August that investigators said likely used commercial explosives and were detonated remotely.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon launched his war on drugs in late 2006 with much of that violence concentrated along the northern border.

Source: Reuters