8 decapiatated bodies found in Durango

The police located, on Thursday, eight decapitated bodies in different parts of the state of Durango, including a deputy chief of security of a local prison. Photo / Alberto Hernández / Cuartoscuro.

ALEXANDRA OLSON / Associated Press

The bodies of eight decapitated men were dumped Thursday along roads in Durango, a drug-gang-plagued northern Mexican state already grappling with the horror of discovering mass graves where 196 corpses have been unearthed so far.

Six of the naked bodies were found along a highway leading out of the state capital of Durango city, their heads lying nearby, according to a statement from the state attorney general's office.

The two other bodies were found in another city street. One was identified as the remains of Gerardo Galindo Meza, the deputy director of a city prison who had been kidnapped Monday. Galindo's head was on a different street corner, accompanied by a threatening message signed by a drug gang, the statement said.



It was the second time this week that beheaded bodies have been found in Durango state. Eleven corpses were found Monday, including six left across from a middle school in the capital. Investigators have announced no arrests or possible motives.

Durango is one of Mexico's most dangerous states, a drug cartel cradle where some of the most notorious kingpins are believed to be hiding. Homicides have more than doubled in the vast, mountainous state over the last two years amid a turf war between the Sinaloa and Zetas gangs.