Mexico City: The police on Thursday (local time) found nine bodies hanging from a bridge, seven more hacked to bits, and another three dumped by the road nearby in what they said was a gang turf-war massacre that left 19 people dead, including one woman here.
The killings, according to prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan, marked a return to the grisly massacre carried out by drug cartels at the height of Mexico's 2006-2012 drug war, when piles of bodies were dumped on roadways as a message to authorities and rival gangs, New York Post has reported.
Authorities said that near the hanging bodies was a banner bearing the initials of the notoriously bloodthirsty Jalisco drug cartel and a threat to a rival gang.
"Be a patriot, kill a Viagra," the banner read, referring to the other cartel, the Viagras.
Two of the bodies were half-naked and hanged by their necks from the bridge and one of the dismembered bodies was a woman, Michoacan Attorney General Adrian Lopez Solis said at a news conference.
"Certain criminal gangs are fighting over territory, to control activities related to drug production distribution and consumption," Solis said.