CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Two drug-cartel gunmen wanted for 45 killings were captured by soldiers in this northern border city, Mexico’s defense department said.

Troops tracked down the suspects after the suspects were wounded last Friday in a shootout with gangland rivals at a Ciudad Juarez hospital, the department said in a statement.

Arturo Arellano Corral, 26, and Salomon Bolivar Villa, 20, told interrogators that they worked for a cell of the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Gabino Salas Valenciano.

The men admitted to 45 murders, the defense department said.

Four hitmen suspected in a total of 211 killings were captured in August by troops and federal police stationed in Ciudad Juarez, a gritty metropolis just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The city has witnessed more than 4,000 gangland slayings since Jan. 1, 2008. Authorities attribute most of the carnage to a turf battle between the Sinaloa organization and the Juarez cartel.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces in a scramble for smuggling and distribution routes.

The struggle is blamed for nearly 15,000 deaths since December 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon gave Mexico’s armed forces the leading role against organized crime. EFE