Mexican soldiers discovered the corpses of nine men on a highway that runs perpendicular to the U.S. border Tuesday, according to a Wednesday report from ABC News.
The bodies, which were severely mutilated by hacking or bullets, seem to be the latest killings in a series of massacres and drug cartel battles this month, ABC News reported. Authorities told ABC News that most of the corpses had bullet wounds, but some bodies were shot or hacked so severely that their organs were found on the highway.
The outlet also reported that the current battles resemble scenes from Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war.
Authorities said they found the bodies on a highway outside of Miguel Aleman, just across the border from Roma, Texas, according to ABC News. The specific area has been a hot spot for battles between rival cartels for over a decade.(RELATED: Smugglers Transporting Illegal Migrants Becoming More Violent, Sophisticated, Texas Sheriffs Say)
While the area is typically fought over by the Gulf cartel and the old Zetas cartel, now known as the Northeast Cartel, authorities are currently unsure of what gang these bodies may have belonged to.
Some of the corpses wore military-style clothing, ABC News reported.
This finding comes just days after the June 25 discovery of 18 bodies after what appeared to have been a shootout between rival drug cartels, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The bodies were found in a remote, rural area in the north-central state of Zacatecas. Two days prior to that finding, the bodies of two abducted police officers were found hanging from an overpass in the same area, according to AP.
The discovery also comes after reports that disappearances were on the rise along the road coined the “highway of death,” from Mexico to the border.
“It’s no longer between the cartels; they are attacking the public,” said one activist on northern Mexico’s highway of death. Irving man missing. https://t.co/32140dg862
— Dianne Solis ✍???? (@disolis) June 29, 2021