News

Mexico City –  A total of 183 bodies have now been recovered from the mass graves in San Fernando, a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and 74 suspects have been arrested in connection with the killings, Attorney General Marisela Morales said.

"The sad events that occurred in San Fernando and the discovery of multiple clandestine graves show, without a doubt, the heartless nature and limitless ambition that characterize the criminal organizations in their search for routes and markets," Morales said.

Investigators have found 40 graves containing human remains in San Fernando, the AG said.

Among the suspects arrested are 17 police officers who allegedly helped the Los Zetas drug cartel, Morales said.

"They are all being held while the investigation continues and some have confessed that they participated directly in the crimes," Morales said.

Esvi Leonel Batres Hernandez, Johnny Torres Andrade, Omar Martin Estrada Luna and Sarai Fabiola Diaz have been identified as the leaders of the Zetas cell that carried out the killings.

The suspects face organized crime, kidnapping, murder and arms charges, the attorney general said.

The suspects belong to Los Zetas, considered Mexico's most violent drug cartel.

Only two bodies have been identified, but DNA tests are being conducted to try to determine the identity of the others, Morales said, adding that the process could take weeks.

The mass graves were found in La Joya, a rural community outside San Fernando, a city that links Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, to the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa.

The bodies found in the mass graves are believed to be those of people who were kidnapped by Los Zetas while traveling through San Fernando on buses and were later murdered.

The discovery of the mass graves has rocked Mexico, where more than 36,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2006.

The mass graves were found earlier this month in the wake of reports that gunmen had forced men off buses headed for Reynosa, located across the border from McAllen, Texas, between March 19 and March 31.

Some gangs have resorted to using unusual methods to recruit gunmen because of the high casualties in the war being waged by rival drug traffickers for control of territory, the federal government says.

The incidents involving the buses may have been an attempt to recruit gunmen, investigators said.

Hundreds of people have gone to morgues looking for missing relatives and friends who might be among the victims.

Los Zetas has been blamed for the wave of violence in Tamaulipas and other parts of northern Mexico.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year.