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The death toll in a plane crash that claimed the lives of Mexico's interior minister and two other high-ranking officials has risen to 13, a Mexico City official told the state-run Notimex news agency on Wednesday.
The small aircraft carrying Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, 37, and seven others crashed Tuesday night in Mexico City.
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Former Deputy Attorney General Josi Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and Miguel Monterubio Cubas, director of social communication, were among the dead, President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address Tuesday night.
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As interior minister, Mourino oversaw the country's domestic affairs, particularly law enforcement. It is Mexico's second most powerful post.
Profile: Juan Camilo Mourino
Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, who has been killed in a plane crash, was the rising star of the country's political scene.
Mr Mourino was known as the president's "strongman"
During his short tenure at the Interior Ministry, the 37-year-old became inextricably linked with Mexico's increasingly bitter battle with powerful drug cartels, presiding over a series of tough measures aimed at combating the trade.
He was known to have a close relationship with President Felipe Calderon - co-ordinating his election campaign and serving as the Chief of Presidency's Office from 2006 to 2008.
Mexican and U.S. authorities were searching Tuesday for a small plane that disappeared while carrying the U.S. and Mexican heads of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement late Tuesday that search crews from the two nations have been combing both sides of the border near the town of Ojinaga, across the border from Presidio, Texas.
"Unfortunately... the search has not yielded any results," the department said.
Earlier Tuesday, Chihuahua state Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Reyes told reporters in Ojinaga that U.S. investigators had located the plane and that all four passengers had died in a crash. His press office later retracted his statement and said the search for the plane continued.