Twenty bodies were discovered — including four decapitated corpses hanging from a bridge near a plastic bag of human heads — after a bloody day of cartel violence in Mexico over the weekend.
All 20 of the victims were male and had gunshot wounds, the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office said.
Five of the bodies were decapitated, with four of those corpses left strung up by their feet along a highway bridge near Culiacán, the largest city in Sinaloa state, authorities said.
The 15 other bodies, including the fifth missing his head, were discovered just yards away in a van.
A plastic bag containing five human heads was found close to the bridge, officials said.
The van was plastered with a banner referencing the ongoing wars between rival drug cartels in Sinaloa, authorities said.
The victims were part of a total of 27 murders reported in Sinaloa on Sunday, including a young man and two women in an armed attack in Culiacán.
The recent upsurge in Mexican drug violence is blamed on clashes between the warring gangs Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, which are fighting over strategic drug trafficking routes in Sinaloa, security sources said.
A bloody power struggle broke out between the two factions in September, triggered by the dramatic kidnapping of one of the group’s leaders by the son of infamous narco boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The kidnapped man was handed over to US authorities by way of a private plane.
Since then, Culiacan, previously one of the more peaceful Mexican cities, has been torn apart by violence as the Sinaloa Cartel has lost control.
Mexican authorities insist they are on top of the violence and are working to crack down on organized crime.
“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” said Feliciano Castro, a Sinaloa government spokesperson, in a statement Monday.
