Police find 11 bodies dumped by a highway in southern Mexico and 4 more in the resort of Acapulco

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police in a southern Mexico region rife with drug cartel violence have found 11 bodies, including two minors, dumped by a highway, prosecutors in the state of Guerrero said Thursday.

Also Thursday, authorities in the nearby resort of Acapulco said four bodies, all strangled to death, were found in a car there.

The 11 bodies were found late Wednesday after police received a tip about an abandoned pickup truck on the main thoroughfare of the city of Chilpancingo, the state capital. The city of 300,000 has been the scene of gruesome drug gang violence as two rival cartels fight for control of the area.

Prosecutors did not specify the ages of the two dead minors but said that two of the 11 bodies were female. Local media reported the bodies had been dismembered and stuffed in plastic bags, but prosecutors did not respond to requests to confirm that.

The highway where they were found is also the main route between Mexico City and the resort of Acapulco, 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the south.

In early October, the city’s mayor was killed and beheaded just a week after he took office. Alejandro Arcos took office on Oct. 1 in Chilpancingo, and his beheaded body was found in a pickup truck a week later, his head placed on the vehicle’s roof.

Two rival drug gangs, known as the Tlacos and the Ardillos, are fighting for control of the drug and extortion business in the city.

In 2023, gang violence in Chilpancingo became so brazen that one of the gangs staged a demonstration of hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored car, blocked a major highway and took police hostage to win the release of arrested suspects.

In Acapulco, prosecutors said police got a tip late Wednesday about a car parked on a downtown street with two dead men with cords tied around their necks in the back seat. Police found two more bodies in similar conditions in the trunk of the car.