MEXICO CITY - Relentless violence linked to drug trafficking claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico just last weekend, including a US consulate employee and her husband in Ciudad Juarez, police data showed.

Among the hardest hit areas were Guerrero state, home to the major tourist destination of Acapulco, where the notorious "La Familia" drug cartel is active. There were 45 weekend murders in Guerrero, police said.

In Chihuahua state on the US border, there were 36 killings, 20 of them in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, the prosecutor's office said.

More than 2,600 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in 2009 in drug-related violence as the cartels battle for control over the lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.

More than 15,000 have died across Mexico over the last three years in an escalating and often shockingly brutal drug war, according to government figures.