Mexico: Six found dead with their hearts cut out near Cancun

In an abandoned mine in central Mexico, 77 bodies in an advanced state of decomposition were found. The mine shaft, near the famed city of Taxco in the state of Guerrero, is more than 450 feet deep and is located in the oldest mining center in the New World. According to Mexico’s Forensic Medical Service, most of the bodies showed signs of being bound by the hand and blindfolded. The bodies were found by authorities following the arrest of 15 hired killers in Iguala, Guerrero.

This was followed over the June 5-6 weekend by another gruesome discovery. In the resort town of Cancun, famed for receiving thousands of American tourists and spring-break students, another six bodies were found in a macabre discovery. The hearts of the victims had been cut out from their bodies and the letter “Z” carved on their abdominal area. It is believed that the letter “Z” is a reference to the infamous “Zeta” drug cartel and to a settling of a deathly account with a rival criminal organization. Four of the bodies were found bound hand and foot while the remaining two were handcuffed. According to Felix Canul, the spokesman for Attorney General of the state of Quintana Roo in the Yucatan Peninsula, the bodies showed signs of torture in addition to the obvious gaping wounds.

Two of the victims were women and they, along with four men, remain as yet unidentified. They were found in a small cave along a highway in Quintana Roo. Following excavation, the bodies were found when a local man found a bloodstained mattress alongside the road and reported to police.

These are among the latest in a series of killings as cartels fight for domination of the Caribbean port, a key gateway for the trafficking of drugs from South America through Mexico on their way to the United States and Europe.

Recently, Cancun’s mayor, Gregorio Sanchez, was charged with drug-trafficking and accused of protecting both the Zetas and the Beltran Leyva cartel. Sanchez was indicted on charges of money-laundering and organized crime. His supporters say that the arrest, just before state elections on July 4 in which the mayor was running for the governorship of Quintana Roo, was politically motivated.

In 2009, Sanchez’s police chief and collaborators were arrested for allegedly protecting the drug cartels. The police chief was also detained over the murder of an army general appointed as the city’s drug czar, although he was never charged with that crime.

Meanwhile the former Quintana Roo Governor Mario Villanueva was extradited in May to the United States to face charges of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine through Cancun. More than 22,700 people have lost their lives to drug-related violence in Mexico since the end of 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched his war against the cartels, with about 45,000 troops fighting the cartels across the country. Until recently, however, Cancun had largely been spared the violence that has engulfed other parts of the country.