Nine dismembered bodies have been found piled in a truck in the violent Mexican state of Veracruz, the governor says, describing the crime as a clash of rival gangs.
Most of the dead were believed to be members of drug gangs, Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes told a news conference on Sunday, citing tattoos found on the bodies.
Before the discovery of the truck in Xalapa on Saturday night, the capital of the oil-rich state, authorities found the body of another man, who apparently had been killed as he tried to flee his captors, Yunes said.
"It is clear that this was a confrontation between criminals," he said.
Escalating tension between drug gangs contributed to a record high number of murders in Mexico in 2017, and it was a particularly bloody year in Veracruz.
Murders in the Gulf state rose about 35 per cent through November last year compared with the same period in 2016. Four of the 12 killings of reporters in Mexico last year took place in the state.
The weekend also saw violence in the northern state of Tamaulipas, where Juan Manuel Hernandez, an official in the conservative National Action Party, was shot to death in his car on Saturday, according to a statement from the state.
Share
