Forensic technicians and Mexican authorities have found at least 42 corpses in almost two dozen hidden mass graves in La Barca near the border between Jalisco and Michoacán states, The Associated Press reported.
Many of the dead bodies were either bound or gagged, as "some showed signs of torture, according to a federal prosecutor who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity," The AP also reported.
The graves were found in the remote area by Lake Chapala, news reports said. "The region has become the site of a turf war between the Knights Templar and the New Generation cartels," The AP also reported.
Drug enforcement agents were led to the 22 mass graves by local police officers who had confessed to working with the drug cartel, news reports said. Some of the bodies found in the mass graves appeared to have been buried for a year or more, The AP also reported.
In the north-central state of Zacatecas, officials said that they found two young women hung from a pedestrian bridge in the city of Fresnillo. A banner with threatening messages, likely written by one of the cartels was hung near the bodies, local media said, as reporte by The AP.
In late October, a drug smuggling border tunnel equipped with a rail system and air conditioning, was discovered connecting San Diego and Tijuana. More than 75 tunnels have been discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2008. The tunnel is the eighth major passage discovered in San Diego since 2006, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, "Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December pledging to eradicate the gang violence that has claimed nearly 80,000 lives since the start of 2007. But parts of Mexico are still regularly racked by shootings and executions," reported New Tang Dynasty Television.
