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Incident is latest in months of intense violence between rival drug cartel members.
Twenty bodies, several of them decapitated, have been found on a highway bridge in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, Mexican authorities say, as rival drug cartel factions fight one another in the area.
The Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office reported a grisly scene on Monday: Four headless corpses were found on a roadside, 16 bodies were discovered inside an abandoned vehicle near the state capital, Culiacan, and five human heads were found inside a bag.
Authorities said the bodies were left with a note, apparently from one of the cartel factions, although the note’s contents were not immediately disclosed.
Feliciano Castro, a Sinaloa government spokesperson, condemned the killings and said authorities need to examine their strategy for tackling organised crime due to the “magnitude” of the violence seen.
“Military and police forces are working together to re-establish total peace in Sinaloa,” Castro said. Members of the public in the state, however, said authorities have lost control.
Sinaloa has been gripped by months of violence fuelled by rival drug traffickers vying for control of routes used to produce and transport narcotics, including fentanyl, that are often destined for the United States.
The groups are split between members loyal to Sinaloa Cartel cofounders Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
The violence peaked after the arrest in July of Zambada, who is on trial in the US. The US announced it had arrested 76-year-old Zambada and 38-year-old Joaquin Guzman Lopez, “El Chapo” Guzman’s son, at an airport near El Paso, Texas.
Zambada accused Guzman Lopez of kidnapping him in Mexico and flying him to the US in a private plane against his will.
“El Chapo” has been serving a life sentence in the US for drug trafficking since 2019.
Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty last July to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.
In September, Zambada pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, murder and other charges in a New York court.
The violence in Sinaloa has killed more than 1,200 people, according to official figures.
The Sinaloa drug cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as “terrorist” organisations by the US.
Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed about 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.
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