MEXICO CITY - MEXICAN police found 11 bodies inside an abandoned car in the border state of Sonora on Thursday, and prosecutors attributed the killings to drug traffickers battling for control of the region.
Sonora's state prosecutors said in a statement that the men had been shot to death and nine of them had their legs and arms cut off.
They were found inside a sport utility vehicle, which had been stolen in neighbouring Arizona, on a road between the towns of Caborca and Sonoyta.
A threatening message was left with the bodies but prosecutors didn't say what the message said.
Prosecutors said the bodies have not been identified and the killings are linked to a fight between local drug traffickers and another group trying to move in.
Police are investigating whether the killings are tied to an attack on the village of Plutarco Elias Calles where four people were abducted and assailants opened fire on the police station Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, federal police said Thursday they have captured two of 53 inmates who escaped from a prison in northern Mexico last month as its guards apparently stood by.
Marcos Espinoza and Osvaldo Garcia were detained Wednesday in Mexico's central state of Hidalgo along with six alleged members of the Zetas, a gang of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel, federal police intelligence coordinator Luis Cardenas told reporters.
Security camera footage shows that guards at the Cieneguillas prison in Zacatecas state stood by as an armed gang walked out with the 53 inmates on May 16. About a dozen of the fugitives are drug cartel suspects.
The prison director and all 44 guards on duty have been jailed pending an investigation into their possible complicity. Mexican drug gangs often buy off or blackmail guards and police. -- AP
