Official: 18 bodies found in mass graves in Mexico

Investigators have dug up 18 bodies in western Mexico after questioning nearly two dozen police officers who confessed to working with a drug cartel and led agents to a series of mass graves, an official said Friday. Officials said that more bodies could be found as excavation of eight graves continues. Some of the bodies were gagged and showed signs of torture, and one of them was a woman, said the federal prosecutors official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press. Neither the identities of the victims nor the motive for the killings have been released, but the area near the border between Jalisco and Michoacan states is the site of a turf war between the Knights Templar and the New Generation cartels. The graves were located in La Barca in a remote area by Lake Chapala, which is popular among tourists and American retirees. The discovery of the mass graves follows the capture of 22 police officers and three other men who are suspects in the disappearances of two federal investigators. The empty vehicles of the unit the two agents were traveling in were found burned earlier this month...more