Mexican authorities discovered 49 decapitated and mutilated bodies on a highway in the northern state of Nuevo Leon on Sunday, in what appears to be the latest escalation in the violent drug cartel conflict. The bodies, 43 men and six women, were found in the town of San Juan on the non-toll road to the border city of Reynosa at around 4am.
Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said a banner left at the scene claimed the Zetas drug cartel was responsible for the massacre. The victims' heads, hands and feet had been cut off, making identification difficult. The bodies have been taken to Monterrey for DNA testing.
State attorney general Adrian de la Garza said the victims may have been killed up to two days earlier at another location before being transported to San Juan, about 75 miles south-west of the border crossing at Roma, Texas. He did not rule out the possibility that the victims were migrants heading to the United States.
Mexico's drug cartels have been engaged in an increasingly bloody war for control of smuggling routes, local drug markets and extortion rackets, including targeting migrants. The Zetas, once the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, have been locked in a territorial battle with the Sinaloa cartel and its allies.
Recent mass killings include 35 bodies found in Veracruz in September, 26 in Guadalajara in November, and 23 in Nuevo Laredo this month. In 2011, authorities found 183 bodies in mass graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, believed to be migrants killed by the Zetas.
