Suspected drug hitmen killed 12 people, including six children, in the southern state of Tabasco, which until now had escaped the spiraling violence of Mexico's drug war. 

A group of armed men fired large-caliber guns at three homes in the town of Macuspana, some 20 miles from the capital of Villahermosa, killing six children and six adults late on Saturday.

A source at Tabasco's Justice Department told Reuters on Sunday that a police officer was among those shot but it was not immediately clear if the rest of the dead were his relatives.

Local media suggested the officer could have been involved in the recent arrest of drug dealers.

Unlike northern states that are home to Mexico's most vicious drug gangs, Tabasco, a green, lush state that produces bananas and oil, is not known for drug-related crimes.

Cartels had spared the families of rivals for years but an army-backed crackdown on crime has disrupted routes and made it more difficult to move drugs across the country, leading to increased violence. There were 6,000 drug killings last year.

Despite the setbacks, President Felipe Calderon has vowed to continue fighting crime.

The Mexican army, in a joint effort with the US coast guard, found nearly 7 tons of cocaine on a ship off the Pacific coast, the government said on Sunday. It is one of the biggest cocaine seizures under Calderon's administration.

In October 2007, the government delivered a huge blow to drug cartels by seizing 23 tons of cocaine and in July of last year, the Mexican military found about 6 tons of cocaine in a makeshift submarine.

(Agencies via China Daily February 16, 2009)