Mexico police struggle to ID mutilated corpses

Federal policemen guard the area where dozens of bodies, some of them mutilated, were found on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border found in the town of San Juan near the city of Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, May 13, 2012. / AP Photo/Christian Palma

(AP) MONTERREY, Mexico - Police found 49 mutilated bodies scattered in a pool of blood near the border with the U.S., a region where Mexico's two dominant drug cartels are trying to outdo each other in bloodshed while warring over smuggling routes.

The bodies of 43 men and six women with their heads, hands and feet chopped off were dumped at the entrance to the town of San Juan, on a highway that connects the industrial city of Monterrey with Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

Mexico drug war's latest toll: 49 headless bodies

At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies before dawn Sunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors to the town was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters — an apparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that was founded by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces.

The bodies, some of them in plastic garbage bags, were most likely brought to the spot and dropped from the back of a dump truck, Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said.

Domene said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads, hands and feet. The remains were taken to a Monterrey auditorium for DNA tests.

The victims could have been killed as long as two days ago at another location, then transported to San Juan, a town in the municipality of Cadereyta, about 105 miles west-southwest of McAllen, Texas, and 75 miles southwest of the Roma, Texas, border crossing, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

Only one couple looking for their missing daughter visited the morgue in Monterrey where autopsies were being performed Sunday, a state police investigator said.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said none of the six female bodies matched the missing daughter's description. He said some of the bodies were badly decomposed and some had their whole arms or lower legs missing.

De la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants.

But it seemed more likely that the killings were the latest salvo in a gruesome game of tit-for-tat in fighting between the Zetas and the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.

Mass body dumpings have increased around Mexico in the last six months of escalating fighting between the Zetas and Sinaloa, which is led by fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and its allies, the federal Attorney General's Office said in statement late Sunday.

The two cartels have committed "irrational acts of inhumane and inadmissible violence in their dispute," the office said, reiterating it is offering $2 million rewards for information leading to the arrests of Guzman, Ismael Zambada, another Sinaloa cartel leader, and Zetas' leaders Heriberto Lazacano Lazcano and Miguel Trevino.

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[malcolmkyle]

Mexico's gruesome civil war is clearly a product of the failed policy of Prohibition.

Alcohol prohibition was a tremendous failure due to the incredible amount of crime and disorder it created. Human nature hasn't changed since the 1920s and early 30s. Then, the distribution of liquor was turned over to a whole new group of criminal entrepreneurs. Now, due to the drug war, dangerous mind altering substances are again being manufactured, smuggled and sold by criminals. Prohibition has turned Mexico into a civil war zone. Our intentions in prohibiting these substances may well be good, but the result of our inability to recognize the futility of such an action will both deepen and prolong the agony caused by this useless and dangerous policy.

The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. - Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

So may we have some realism from all of you now, on how to go about reclaiming our streets and stopping this mayhem? Please start making an honest effort to address the root cause of the present horrific mess and the high proliferation of "well funded" violent Cartels --the failed regime of drug prohibition.

[malcolmkyle]

Mexico's gruesome civil war is clearly a product of the failed policy of Prohibition.

Alcohol prohibition was a tremendous failure due to the incredible amount of crime and disorder it created. Human nature hasn't changed since the 1920s and early 30s. Then, the distribution of liquor was turned over to a whole new group of criminal entrepreneurs. Now, due to the drug war, dangerous mind altering substances are again being manufactured, smuggled and sold by criminals. Prohibition has turned Mexico into a civil war zone. Our intentions in prohibiting these substances may well be good, but the result of our inability to recognize the futility of such an action will both deepen and prolong the agony caused by this useless and dangerous policy.

The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. - Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

So may we have some realism from all of you now, on how to go about reclaiming our streets and stopping this mayhem? Please start making an honest effort to address the root cause of the present horrific mess and the high proliferation of "well funded" violent Cartels --the failed regime of drug prohibition.

Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

* The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.?

* Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. - approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc.?

* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.?

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.

[TheKritik]

I'd rader go for a vakay to Kandahar or Homs than to Mehico.

[KansasCity-2012]

It is not clear if the bodies were those of innocent travelers, such as the busload of immigrants ambushed in Monterrey a few months ago, or they were drug runners from a rival gang that were captured.

There is evidence that the most violent cartel of Sinaloa has kidnapped immigrants as hostages and demanded their relatives to become smugglers of drugs across the US border to secure their release. Some Zetas have captured their competitors and killed them to discourage the Sinaloa Cartels. When the Sinaloa Cartels see their drugs leave and no money return, they then kill their hostages. Some Sinaloa Cartels then capture and kill Zetas and dump their bodies and headless torso's.

We are quite aware of the violence and who is responsible for it, because many of their leaders have sent their families off to havens in the USA, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and the Cayman Islands, who have informed against their own relatives and sought protection.