17 bodies dumped on Mexican
roadside (TIMES OF BAN)The
bodies of 17 men, most of them
tied up in chains and shot dead,
were found dumped along a highway
Sunday in a western Mexican state
known as a violent battleground
for rival drug cartels.
Police found the bodies amid an
upsurge in drug gang violence
following the arrest of two major
drug lords in recent weeks.
"Witnesses said that some people
arrived in vans, threw out the
bodies and left," said Jalisco
state prosecutor Tomas Coronado.
"They were practically all tied up
with chains."
Coronado said the men may have
been killed elsewhere and left in
his state, since Jalisco borders
on Michoacan, and both are among
the states most ravaged by the
country's drug violence.
The bodies were found near the
farm town of Tizapan, close to the
state border with Michoacan,
officials said.
There have been no arrests, and no
group has claimed responsibility
for the crime.
Some 60,000 people have died in
drug-related violence in Mexico
since President Felipe Calderon
ordered federal troops to take on
the cartels in late 2006.
The war between cartels is mainly
over lucrative drug smuggling
routes to the United States, but
also over control of local crime
rackets.
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