Fourteen bodies found in northeast Mexico

Fourteen dismembered bodies were found in an abandoned cargo vehicle in northeastern Mexico, an area prone to drug violence, prosecutors told AFP. A police officer discovered the bodies of 11 men and three women at midday in the vehicle, which was illegally parked near city hall in Ciudad Mante, they said. Ciudad Mante, which has a population of 10,000, is located in Tamaulipas state, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) north of Mexico City. In mid-April, police found 10 bodies in the town, some of them decapitated. Police also found a blanket on the site with a message from the killers, but officials declined to give further details. According to local media, a man parked the vehicle in broad daylight and then walked away down one of the town's busiest streets. Police and soldiers blocked off the area after the bodies were discoveredand conducted a raid nearby. The bodies were then taken to the morgue. Tamaulipas state -- along the US-Mexico border -- has been the site of fierce turf wars between the Gulf drug cartel and the Zetas. The original Zetas were anti-drug commandos who deserted and went to work for the Gulf cartel in the mid-1990s as hired guns. They later split to form their own cartel. More than 50,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a tough military crackdown on criminal groups in December 2006, most in battles between rival cartels. On May 4, 14 mutilated bodies were discovered in the Tamaulipas city of Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Laredo, Texas. Earlier that day nine bodies were found hanging from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo. Nuevo Laredo and the roads leading to the border town are key smuggling routes, as 40 percent of all cargo crossing northbound into the United States from Mexico goes through the city.