FORTY-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies have been found dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the US border in what appears to be the latest blow in an escalating war of intimidation among drug gangs. Mexico's organised crime groups often abandon multiple bodies in public places as warnings to their rivals, and authorities said at least a few of the recent victims had tattoos of the Santa Muerte cult popular among drug traffickers. But Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were US-bound migrants. The bodies of the 43 men and six women were found in the town of San Juan on the non-toll highway to the border city of Reynosa, forcing police and troops to close off the highway. Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said a banner left at the site bore a message with the Zetas drug cartel taking responsibility for the massacre. Dismembered bodies dumped on Mexico highway Mr Domene said the fact the bodies were found with the heads, hands and feet cut off will make identification difficult. The bodies were being taken to Monterrey for DNA tests. Mr De la Garza said the victims could have been killed as long as two days ago at another location, then transported to San Juan, a town in Cadereyta municipality, about 175 kilometres west-southwest of McAllen, Texas. Mexican drug cartels have been waging an increasingly bloody war to control smuggling routes, the local drug market and extortion rackets, including shakedowns of migrants seeking to reach the United States. A drug gang allied with the Sinaloa cartel left 35 bodies at a freeway overpass in the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas. Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and the Sinaloa group. So far this month, 23 bodies were found dumped or hanging in the city of Nuevo Laredo and 18 were found along a highway south of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
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