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Alejandro Acosta / Reuters
Forensic technicians handle bags containing human remains found in two abandoned vehicles near Guadalajara, Mexico, on Thursday.
MEXICO CITY -- Police found the decapitated and dismembered bodies of 18 people near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest atrocity by the country's most brutal drug cartel.
Thought to have been carried out by the Zetas gang, it was one of the biggest mass beheadings in the recent history of Mexico, where decapitations have become alarmingly common.
The bodies and heads were stuffed into two vehicles abandoned on the side of a highway in the small town of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, said Tomas Coronado, chief prosecutor for the state of Jalisco.
Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos is located 18 miles south of the center of Guadalajara on the road to Lake Chapala, a site popular with foreign tourists and U.S. retirees.
Money, drugs, guns and gangs: Child actors shame Mexico
Some of the bodies had been refrigerated before they were dumped, Coronado said.
A policeman at the scene in Ixtlahuacan said some victims had been so badly mutilated that officers could not determine whether they were male or female.
Steve McCraw, the Texas Director of Public Safety, says that there is a significant criminal threat from Mexico drug cartels that are smuggling drugs throughout his state and the nation.
The officer said a note by the bodies was signed by the Zetas cartel, a criminal militia led by former Mexican soldiers and blamed for some of the worst atrocities in Mexico's drug war.
Cross-border methamphetamine trade booms amid Mexico's 'war on drugs'
"They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," Coronado told The Associated Press.
The AP reported that the vehicles, described as minivans, were towed to government offices to unload the bodies.
Guadalajara, known for its high-tech industry, mariachi bands and tequila, has been a strategic base for drug traffickers since the 1980s.
Violence has flared in the once-tranquil city as the Zetas moved in to challenge the smuggling turf of other gangs in western Mexico.
One killed every half hour in Mexico drug-related violence
Soldiers arrested a high-ranking member of the powerful Sinaloa cartel in the city in March, causing his supporters to block streets with 25 burning cars and trucks.
Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion.
Attacks between the Zetas and their rivals have flared up across Mexico since the beginning of the year.
On Friday, nine corpses were hanged from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo just hours before 14 bodies were dismembered and shoved into garbage bags and ice boxes.
Five days of intense battles in western Sinaloa state last week also left 34 dead, adding to the body count in Mexico's drug war, which has killed more than 50,000 people in the past five years.
Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
This is simply al-Quaida partnering with the drug gangs.
Since the federal government can't seem to do anything about the borders, U.S. citizens are next. Their anatomy is no different than Mexicans and their heads will come off just as easily.
Prove it or take off your tin-foil hat.
Voice of Wisdom: how about credit to John Townes Van Zandt for writing that fine song?
Just as Obama blames everything on Bush, the Mexican President blames the U.S. for their drug problems. The drug cartels are paying the police and government leaders to look the other way. If they really wanted a war on drugs the Mexicans would use their military to eradicate the cartels. But why eleminate your pay check? We need to shut down that border, send ALL illegals home, and stop all tourist trips to Mexico. The ONLY thing that crosses that border is the illegals going home!! Anyone coming from the Mexican side into the U.S. will be shot on sight. Any bets our crime rate will drop?
i'll bet you 2 heads n a arm
Go to war with Mexico!! Its a sess pool! a 3rd world country. The only people who have money there are the police and the cartels while people still live like hunter-gatherers!
How very sad, noone should be beheaded.
Beheading was never an issue in the Mexican drug battles.....not until they became connected and trained by the Islamic radicals who are utlizing their geographic positioning (access to the US) to expand on their efforts to infiltrate America and distribute terror with the assistance of the drug cartels.
Beheading is now the way they do business and it's "heading" our way.
And you have proof of this connection? Please, enlighten the rest of us.
You won't see it until it's too late. This has been going on for some time, just ignored.
The radicals have seen how the connection with the drug cartels can benefit their cause. Beheading and hanging from bridges gets a strong message across for the cartels who own Mexico.
Remember when you see it all come closer. Videos they are making as they do the beheadings are hard to watch. Very violent.
Their presence is much nearer to us than we think, even if we're many many miles from the border.
Hopefully,we'll continue to see more and more coverage on this.
Poorly written story.
This is a holocaust on our border! The U.S. drug users are just as responsible as the drug scum that did this !
As the old business adage goes: You do your best business on Main Street...
The US is Main Street to Mexico..sounds trite...but obviously true..
Notice MSNBC ignoring the hate crimes against the two young reporters in Virginia? google Va Pilot reporters beaten Virginia.....get the truth somewhere because you won't here.
Damn. I won't get information on purportedly beaten reporters in Virginia in a story about drug cartel violence in Mexico? You're right! Let's boycott MSNBC!
What ? You don't believe those "tourist" commercials that say it's safe in Mexico and even better than Hawaii ?
Guns and money go South - drugs go North.
Interesting "trade" between the US and Mexico.
I care about this as much as I care about arabs killing each other. That is to say I don't care at all.
When is the Mexican Government going to ask the United States for help in eradicating the drug cartels. They are terrorists and if Mexico wasn't a boarder country it would have been invaded a long time ago. It's almost as if law enforcement both civilian and military wouldn't like getting their budgets cut. Or is it Intelligence Agencies need the freedom to roam? Something has to be done. We help out many other governments who have the same problems. I guess it could be because big business wouldn't want it's factories destroyed by these terrorists. Plus the fact that Mexico itself doesn't want to give up any more than it already has in families, workers, etc. All bull crap aside...We Need a friend in Mexico. How Illegals cross the border so easily now the cartels could bring their form of justice here. And another bin Laden would be unacceptable. Think about it.
With the illegals and drug flow...I'm in favor of military action myself. I know I'll never see it, but its the only way to stem the drug flow.
But i have to figure, that alot of money is being paid out to insure the drug flow into America, so lets start there.
The Cartels sends signals with violence, could it be the powers that be, here in the US are a bit pensive to get into a war with the cartels?
DEA, state, local...catch who they can, they call it job security.
Steve McCraw: "The borders are not secure..."
The guy must be a Harvard Grad to deduce that...
Tell us something we don't know Steve, be a nice change..
If the 18 dead are from a rival drug cartel, who cares?
Must a been a slow week...only 18 bodies...
Illegal immigration in hordes produces
1) higher medical costs for all of us
2) produces clandestine trade and
3) unfair competition for legal citizens who try to play by the rules.
Our Federal Govt is letting us all down in a very big way.
until Mexico has death sentence for drug crimes, it's a hopeless country.
The sad part is that there are now 18 fewer votes for obama in the fall.
Silly little right-winger. Your ignorance makes me laugh.
if there military and gov't wasn't corrupt maybe they could put an end to the drug wars.kill all drug dealers.
I HOPE THEY WILL BE OK.... ARE THEY RECEIVING MEDICAL TREATMENTS FOR THEIR INJURIES?"
'
(this message brought to you by Angelina Jollie. Utter stupidity & clulessnes after all these years)
whats in the box !!!whats in the box ??
Of course we all know who is responsible for the violence don't we. It's the idiots in this country who BUY THE DRUGS. Stop buying and the cartels would be out of business in a week.
And don't you lefties give me some sob story about why we should "legalize" drugs. If Obummer can ban guns, sugar, cigarettes, lightbulbs, coal, oil, and every other thing that is percieved to cause "global warming", then he should be able to convince all the users to stop.
Hey right-wing nut job, show me where the President has banned guns, sugar, cigarettes, light-bulbs, coal, oil or anything else you're ranting about. Since we both know your silly statement to be untrue however, I won't hold my breath.
Try buying a 100 watt incandescent light bulb next year... try smoking a cigarette in your local government office building..... when was the last coal fired power plant built..... he's doing best to destroy the second amendment but thankfully the NRA and others are fighting back. WAKE UP to what is going on.
Don't argue with him Lee, he's doing the best he can just to walk upright, never mind create a decent argument. Yeah I know you're going to call me a right wing nut job Isr... Save your breath (and BTW, you'd be wrong)
Niether one of you actually answered his valid question though, all you did is repeat what you said originally in a different way. Not surprised though, on these blogs people just say anything and never back it up with actual facts or references to said facts. Wonder why that is..
Methico ... Nothing like having a failed state on your southern border, huh? All Americans have to do is stop smoking, snortin' and shootin' and most of this will go away. This is your fault, pot-heads and other assorted druggies ...
Unspeakable crimes. Brutal,barbaric murders. Coming to America soon. Read "Beheading Mexico" in "The Trumpet" www.thetrumpet.com/9270.0.144.0/society/.../beheading-mexico It is a chilling,scary story about what is really going on in Mexico and what is coming to America. And worse,what is already here. These people will kill a cop,a police chief or a mayor without a second thought if they are interfering with their business. Don't think they won't do it here. If this was from any other country invading us,there would be a war. Don't be fooled. Mexico is not our friend. America is slowly,methodically being taken over without a single shot being fired. And sadly,we are letting it happen.