Mexico drug war's latest toll: 49 headless bodies

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Police found 49 mutilated
bodies scattered in a pool of blood near the border with the U.S., a
region where Mexico's two dominant drug cartels are trying to outdo each
other in bloodshed while warring over smuggling routes.

The bodies of 43 men and six women with their
heads, hands and feet chopped off were dumped at the entrance to the
town of San Juan, on a highway that connects the industrial city of
Monterrey with Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.


At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies
before dawn Sunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors
to the town was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters — an
apparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that was founded by
deserters from the Mexican army's special forces.

The bodies, some of them in plastic garbage bags,
were most likely brought to the spot and dropped from the back of a dump
truck, Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said. Domene
said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads,
hands and feet. The remains were taken to a Monterrey auditorium for DNA
tests.


The victims could have been killed as long as two
days ago at another location, then transported to San Juan, a town in
the municipality of Cadereyta, about 105 miles (175 kilometers)
west-southwest of McAllen, Texas, and 75 miles (125 kilometers)
southwest of the Roma, Texas, border crossing, state Attorney General
Adrian de la Garza said.

Only one couple looking for their missing daughter
visited the morgue in Monterrey where autopsies were being performed
Sunday, a state police investigator said. The officer, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the
case, said none of the six female bodies matched the missing daughter's
description. He said some of the bodies were badly decomposed and some
had their whole arms or lower legs missing.


De la Garza said he did not rule out the
possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants. But it seemed
more likely that the killings were the latest salvo in a gruesome game
of tit-for-tat in fighting between the Zetas and the powerful Sinaloa
Cartel.


Mass body dumpings have increased around Mexico in
the last six months of escalating fighting between the Zetas and
Sinaloa, which is led by fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
and its allies, the federal Attorney General's Office said in statement
late Sunday.

The two cartels have committed "irrational acts of
inhumane and inadmissible violence in their dispute," the office said,
reiterating it is offering $2 million rewards for information leading to
the arrests of Guzman, Ismael Zambada, another Sinaloa cartel leader,
and Zetas' leaders Heriberto Lazacano Lazcano and Miguel Trevino.