- Police in Puebla, Mexico, discovered five human heads outside an abandoned car and a dismembered body inside the vehicle
- One of the victims has been identified as José ‘El Tiburón’ Vega, 37, a former police officer who was kidnapped at his car wash business in February.
- Each victim had a note indicating the reason why they were murdered – each note was signed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
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Seven bodies, including five decapitated and another completely dismembered, were found inside a car that was abandoned on a Mexican highway on Friday.
The Puebla State Attorney General’s Office said all of the bodies contained messages signed by the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and described the reasons behind their murders.
Each victim was accused of having been involved in criminal activity, ranging from drug dealing on the streets to truck theft and extortion.
A video posted to social media showed five heads scattered on the pavement next to the vehicle.
“On each of the bodies we found handwritten messages on paper, each detailing the reason why they were murdered,” said Puebla state attorney general Gilberto Higuera.
Former police officer José ‘El Tiburón’ Vega is one of seven people whose remains were found in an abandoned vehicle in the central Mexican city of Puebla last Friday.
Five of the bodies were dismembered and another completely dismembered, according to the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Puebla. Each victim had a note on their body detailing the reason they were killed.
One of the victims was identified as José ‘El Tiburón’ Vega, 37, a former police officer who was kidnapped along with one of his car wash employees on February 24.
Vega was fired from the Puebla state police in 2013 for a shooting and was arrested in 2014 for illegal possession of police equipment.
A second victim was identified as a Colombian loan shark, nicknamed ‘El Kevin’, who was kidnapped on March 24.
While vigilantes have sometimes left such messages on corpses, it is much more common for drug cartels to leave similar marks on victims’ bodies to threaten rivals or punish behavior they claim violates their rights. rules.
Five heads were left lying outside a car that was found abandoned on a road in the central city of Puebla, Mexico, last Friday.
Higuera was extremely cautious in describing the evidence, but suggested that it involved “not only a dispute (between gangs) but also something related to dominance over certain people, with the objective not only of domination, but also of recruitment.”
He did not clarify that comment further. But some cartels in Mexico, when seeking to establish territory as their own, kill rivals or any thieves or drug dealers they find, and leave messages to convince local residents that such activities will not be tolerated under the new cartel.
The gruesome murders were surprising because they occurred in the large and relatively prosperous city of Puebla state, just east of Mexico City.
Puebla is the fifth largest city in Mexico and had largely been spared the drug cartel violence that affected surrounding areas.
Leaving the bodies in the middle of a highway was also unusual. Police were quickly alerted to the body-laden vehicle because it was blocking traffic on the city’s main ring road.