Ciudad Juarez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas, lived through the bloodiest month in its history in August, with more than 300 people murdered in drug-related violence.

So far this year, Juarez, considered Mexico's most dangerous city and the scene of frequent shootouts between rival drug traffickers, has registered nearly 1,500 murders, accounting for some 30 percent of the nearly 5,000 killings reported between January and August across Mexico.

The Juarez drug cartel has been battling the Sinaloa cartel for control of the border region.

Mexican officials, who deployed 8,000 federal police and soldiers in the border metropolis months ago in an effort to reduce the violence, have been unable to put a dent in the murder rate, which is running at about 10 per day in the past month.