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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:
Eighteen? Wow this is starting to get serious ...
(Were they ticketed for no seatbelts?) Mexico is a THIRD WORLD TOILET THAT NEEDS TO BE FLUSHED NOW!
While we lose Southern California and other border states to these terrorists, we continue the useless war in Afghanistan. Ron Paul 2012!
Soldiers running drug cartels is very scary. They stood a chance if they were run by civilians. :-(
LOL, your giving the soldiers too much credit. The majority of them are not smart enough to pull off stuff like this.
ummm If I remember correctly the Zetas are former mexican army and police special forces.... They seem to be doing a "bang up" job of things.
Scrolling through the titles of articles to read, I clicked on the title: "18 beheaded bodies found". There was no mention of location in the title I clicked on, but automatically knew it would be in Mexico. Sad how people now think of Mexico and associate it with crime, abductions, and beheadings. If you think back 50 years it was just another place to take a sunny vacation. How times everywhere have changed for the worse.
To all the liberals who love their "undocumented migrants": this is America in 20 years.
Arm yourselves and get ready.
American druggies don't care how many people are murdered, as long as they get their "fix".
"Caribbeanslim," the answer to you question (Mexico-Cuba) is politics - the zoo being run from the monkey cage. Mr. Obama, a politician (remember when Reagan compared politics to prostitution?) like his predecessor, has just changed his view of "gay marriage," and courts the vote of women with every similar "change of views" he finds necessary. So there you (and we) have the algorithm we need: when anti-Castro Cubans can't sway all those electoral votes in Florida, you (we) will be able to go to Cuba. And no matter how many people on either side of the border are terrorized or murdered, it won't make any political difference as long as Mexicans here - legally or illegally - can sway elections.
The important lesson from an historical point of view is that Mr. Reagon would have done better to compare politicians with criminals. I've managed to life a seventy-five year life with little concern for the common version of criminal; it's the political version that has given me hell.
And, lest we forget, anyone who supports a criminal is a criminal.
I allways wonder when I read these storys, Are these people really that illusive that no one knows where they are or is their government in on it. A couple of drones would make a huge impact on these people, Pardon the pun, Here in the states this would not happen for nearly as long as they have survived unless of coarse it was arranged by Obama and Holder.
This is the kind of behavoir liberals are fighting every day to be brought to America. Just what kind of stupid are liberals?
You're quite the fan of excessive hyperbole, aren't you?
When it's the truth, it isn't hyperbole.
See my mymomWHOraisedafool? THIS is exactly what he was talking about!
The enormous amount of money American druggies send to Mexico daily would feed ALL the hungry children of this country and several more.
You do know that the murder rate in the US is more than 1 every 30 min.
You do know the US is considerably larger than Mexico? And most of our murders are drug related? And without Mexican drugs, our murder rate would be much lower?
That may be so, but compared to other civilized countries, our crime rate is high. Saying that we are considerably larger as an excuse,,,,that dog just does not hunt! Sorry Tumbleweed, but that one just rolled down the road.
Until people wise up, and stop using these drugs, this kind of tragedy will continue un-abated! How any one person could do this to another, is beyond my comprehension? These people are sick minded. All for the love of money! Greedy bastards like the Mitt Romney's of the world!!!
I dont need to be filthy rich, just to enjoy life! I'm poor by any standard, yet i love my life, and would not switch with the likes of Rummey the Dummy! Money cannot buy you love, nor can money buy you happiness! In fact, most rich people hate being rich! The hassels are so great, its not worth it to me!
Without the drug cartels in Mexico, there would be alot of people without money! Without those cartels, Mexico would once again be that poor country to the south!
This world is just full of crime and it is not getting any better it just tells me that satan is running this world and i'll be glad when Christ comes back...
Stay away from Mexico, their just plain crazy. PSPaul has the right answer, lets invade. Get rid of the cartels.
The US funds this destruction through prohibition.
Uncaring American druggies fund this destruction.
Tell us how alcohol prohibition worked out.
If you don't want to face the problem, change the subject. LOL.
To answer you: I wish alcohol was also prohibited. During prohibition, HONEST people obeyed the law.
Druggies. Yea ok. Coca Cola used to have coke in it, Asprin used to have heroin in it, textiles used to have hemp in it, and that was early Americana. So Tumbleweed, your grandparents were druggies if they ever used those products.
Even if they did use those products, they were legal. Therefore my grand parents weren't CRIMINALS.
Exactly. They were legal and the US kept out of our business. Pain killers are legal, but cause more problems than illegal drugs. Blame supply and demand, druggies, teenagers, whoever you want, but the drug policy in the US hasn't worked ever, so why not try something new?
I love it, Mexicans giving Muslims a run for their money on beheadings. I think we should cheer for the Mexicans, you know, just to piss the Muslims off.
Not a problem. Remember the infamous words of Hussein Zero when asked about the drug cartels and murders in Mexico, shortly after taking office, "It's not a priority." But Gay Marriage is.
So much crime in this world and seems to be at no end it just tells me that Satan is running this world and I'll be happy when Christ comes.
That's all you have to live for? Pretty lame. How do you know you'll even be still alive when and if he comes?
keep praying , i think you will be waiting along time for your make believe chariot
Leave Mexico be, and let them all slaughter each other.
Never been there, never gonna go there.
We should be in Mexico not the Middle East! Those morons are closer to us and destroying America too!
Yoweee! ARIZONA T is the only one who sees the problem here?
Wanna kill the cartels? DON'T BUY THEIR DOPE! The money that drives them comes from the U.S. Don't buy from them,don't allow it around you,try some "TOUGH LOVE" on YOUR family and friends, most of all, point the finger at their partners, the politicos, who keep the price up with drug laws that DON'T work!
Exactly... let us grow our own… then we would not be feeding the cartel steam engine
Jonzo: That is the second best solution. The first , of course, is to stop all using. But I could live with your idea.
Just one problem with legalizing pot everyone, the Mexican cartels are bringing in mostly cocaine. Does everyone want to legalize that too?
Legalizing pot would do nothing to stop them from wanting to bring in cocaine when they can sell cocaine here for anywhere between $55 and $150 a gram and $1 = about 13 pesos.
so if we supposedly go into all these foreign nations to so called help the people, why the hell havent we gone into mexico to blow all the drug cartels. they seem to have a much worse effect on there and our country then terrorist do. actually they are terrorist, just in a difference sense. if the country had oil or political implications im sure we would be going to mexico and killing all those cartels members. but we rather fly around the world to fight wars of so called weapons of mass destruction that have still never been found.
for those of you who are now throwing out the famous "this is why we should legalize drugs...it will bring in all this money blah blah blah blah.."
Do you really think that cartels are gonna bend over and let the government stick it in their butts?? do you think they are gonna be happy with selling a "now legal" product and give the government the taxes with a smile on their face?? HELL NO!! they are gonna do whatever they can to sneak/bribe/smuggle and whatever else they can think of (and given their track record of getting drugs into this country...they are pretty dang good at it) to get their drugs in this country and on the market while avoiding all taxes and so-called profit that the country would ever see. the same goes for anyone else as well, no one wants to be screwed by the government and illegal trafficking of drugs will occur whether said drugs are illegal or not
The fallacy of that concept is simple. If it WAS legal, the cost would decrease exponentially as the risk involved is eliminated. If the "profit margin" is drastically reduced, there is less incentive to engage in the activity to begin with.
Also, now you have another element looking at the illegal activity. If it was legal, and people were caught smuggling it in, you have the TAX authorities doing the arrest and prosecution, and the people are more apt to support the "good" guys vs the smugglers in that scenario. Especially, if the marijuana was grown in the US under strict control, employing Americans.
While I don't smoke MJ... I have no problem legalizing it. ON ONE CONDITION....
Come up with a test similar to a breathalyzer for pot, and make DUI penalties for pot AND booze much more severe than they are now. 1st offense say $2500, 2nd offense $5000 and 180 days, 3rd offense $20000 and 365 days... If you're convicted of vehicular homicide while DUI, life in prison. NO mitigating or extenuating factors. You do the crime, you do the time.
Tax the pot, and allow CONTROLLED domestic cultivation and it decreases the demand for foreign imports.
While you're at it, make the penalties for hard drug(cocaine, crack, meth, heroin) use and possession more severe. Don't just go after the sellers.... go after the USERS. Make it so unbearable for the users that they will quit. I know it's an addiction, but addictions CAN be overcome. Provide the help to get clean. When the DEMAND is reduced, the prices drop and incentive for selling decreases.