Global News

Culiacán (Mexico) (AFP) – The bodies of 20 people, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting each other, authorities said Monday.

Four headless corpses were by the roadside while 16 bodies were discovered inside an abandoned vehicle, the Sinaloa state prosecutor's office said.

Five human heads were found inside a bag at the scene.

All of the bodies showed signs of gunshot wounds, prosecutors said.

Local media reported that four decapitated bodies were left hanging from the bridge by their legs -- a common tactic by criminal gangs -- but there was no official confirmation.

Violence has soared in the northwestern state since the capture of cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada almost a year ago.

The veteran drug trafficker claimed he was kidnapped in Mexico by a son of notorious druglord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Zambada said he was then flown against his will in a private plane to the United States, where El Chapo himself is serving a life sentence.

The conflict, which has left more than 1,200 people dead according to official figures, pits gang members loyal to El Chapo and his sons against others aligned with Zambada.

The cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated terrorist organizations by the United States.

Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.