Mexican Couple Arrested with Ice Chest Filled with Body Parts

Army raids bulletproofing auto shop

Adriana Gomez Licon
Associated Press

The Mexican army says it has found an auto shop used to bulletproof vehicles for drug gangs.

Ten people were arrested and soldiers confiscated 10 cars or SUVs that were being bulletproofed, as well a six other vehicles in a warehouse in the northern state of Sinaloa, the army said in a late-Monday statement.

Authorities did not say which cartel managed the shop raided on Sunday, but it was in the home state of Mexico's most-wanted drug lord Joaquin Guzman, who is known as "El Chapo."

In border states such as Tamaulipas, soldiers have raided similar bulletproofing shops and found freight trucks completely covered in steel.

In Acapulco, meanwhile, federal police said they caught a young woman and a young man as they were getting out of a car near a shopping mall with an ice chest that contained a decapitated head and other human remains. Police had followed them because the car matched the description in a kidnapping report.

Inside the vehicle, police said, they found another head inside another ice chest.

Police officers discovered the bound bodies of the victims in a car near Acapulco two hours after the arrest.

Federal police said 19-year-old Damaris Gomez leads a group if killers working for "the street sweeper" gang. The 21-year-old man riding with her is an alleged hit man, police said.

The local gang has been fighting the Independent Cartel of Acapulco for control of the coast city since the 2010 arrest of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie." He is accused of being a drug capo for the Beltran Leyva cartel

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed federal police officers to the port city to curb drug violence.

In the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, police found the dismembered bodies of four men in bits scattered around the city.

Prosecutors spokesman Arturo Sandoval said police first found two heads and parts of two bodies at street corner in the southern part of the city, along with a handwritten message saying "To the New Juarez cartel, keep recruiting, we're waiting for you."

The New Juarez Cartel is a group that recently appeared, and which accuses authorities of favoring the Sinaloa cartel, which is fighting a bloody turf battle against local gangs for control of Ciudad Juarez.

The other victims' remains were found scattered elsewhere in the city later in the day.

Amid continuing reports about the operation of U.S. intelligence officers in Mexico, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City issued a statement Tuesday saying that "in accordance with Mexican law, the U.S. government does not carry out law enforcement operations in Mexico. That is a job for Mexican authorities."

The U.S. statement noted that "we closely cooperate with Mexican authorities in that effort, in full respect for Mexico's sovereignty and Mexican law, for the mutual benefit of our two counties and our shared goals. The U.S. government does this by providing equipment and training, and by sharing information."