Mexican police find 17 mutilated bodies

JALISCO, Mexico - The Associated Press

Police stare at dismembered bodies of 17 people found on a road in Tizapan. More than 50,000 people believed to have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006. AFP photo

The dismembered bodies of 17 men were found on Sept. 16 on a farm in a part of central Mexico disputed by violent drug cartels, officials said.

The bodies were dumped near a highway in the town of Tizapan el Alto by the border between Jalisco and Michoacan, said Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado Olmos.

Coronado Olmos didn’t reveal the identities of the slain men but said the bodies were naked, mutilated and stacked with chains around their necks. They had been killed elsewhere and dumped on the property. “Our border regions with other states are vulnerable to this kind of action and the dumping of bodies,” the prosecutor said.

Authorities haven’t said who they think is behind the killings but the area is a cartel battleground and Mexico’s crime groups regularly leave behind such grisly remains as they battle for control of trafficking routes and markets.

In May, authorities found 18 human heads and remains packed into two abandoned cars along the highway.

More than 47,500 people have been killed in Mexican drug violence since December 2006.