Two U.S. citizens killed at Mexico border crossing

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Two workers shot to death on Monday while waiting to cross the border from Mexico into the United States were American citizens, the U.S. State Department said.

The two men were riding in a pickup truck and about to cross into California at the San Ysidro border crossing point when they were gunned down on Monday afternoon, local authorities said.

Sergio Salcido Luna, 25, and Kevin Joel Romero, 28, were found dead in the vehicle having been shot several times. A small amount of drugs were recovered from the scene, local law enforcement said.

"We can confirm that two U.S. citizens were shot to death at a Tijuana border crossing yesterday," the State Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The two men worked for a beverage maintenance company in southern California, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The busy San Ysidro transit point is typically congested with workers and other travelers. It is also used by traffickers ferrying drugs and undocumented immigrants north while illegal weapons head south to arm bandits in Mexico's bloody drug war.

In September 2009, U.S. agents fired at three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants that tried to evade heavy security at the same crossing and pass into the United States. Three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Greg McCune)