Mexico Officials Find 6 Bodies Showing Signs Of Torture

Officials said that on Tuesday, the bodies of two women and four men were found lying on the side of a street near Monterrey in Mexico. Their hands were tied and it seemed they were possibly tortured and then killed.

Officials found the bodies around 2 a.m. in the Residencial Palmas neighborhood in Apodaca, which is a suburb of Monterrey, reported New York Post.

All the victims seemed to have been shot and had their hands tied, prosecutors for the border state of Nuevo Leon said.

It appeared that the victims were told to kneel on the sidewalk, placed in front of a wall, and then were shot multiple times.

El Financiero reported that the victims had been kidnapped in two vehicles and then were lined up against a wall on the banks of the Topo Chico stream. After that, they were executed with a volley of bullets.

When the victims were found lying in the street, they were barefoot, and their hands and feet were tied with cords.

A source said that the six of them might have been tortured before being killed with gunshot wounds to the neck.

At the scene of the execution, officials reportedly found dozens of .38 caliber shell casings.

The victims have not been officially identified, but it was revealed that they ages between 30 and 35.

The killings could be related to a settling of scores between rival groups.

Their participation in organized crime cells is currently being investigated.

One of the victims, whose torso was exposed, had a tattoo visible. It was on his ribs that had the initials CDN. It suggested a possible connection to the Northeast Cartel.

Violence has gone up in Nuevo Leon in the last few weeks. On June 27, seven armed people had attacked an Apodaca police unit. The cops were patrolling the hotel zone near the Monterrey international airport. A policewoman had died and her partner had been seriously injured in that incident.

As for the Northeast Cartel (Cartel del Noreste - CDN), it is an offshoot of the Zetas. It is the dominant group in Nuevo Laredo, which is on the U.S.-Mexico border in Tamaulipas. The cartel operates unimpeded by rival gangs or local authorities who are sometimes complicit in their criminal activity, as per Insight Crime.

The cartel members have kidnapped migrant advocates who they see as cutting into their own illicit activities.

Their influence goes beyond the migrant shelters. Paid lookouts along the banks of the Rio Grande monitor all movement on both sides of the river. Other gang members survey plazas and parks where migrants are known to meet. There are bus stations where they look out for those who have arrived from major cities like Monterrey.

Over the years, organized crime groups in Mexico have become more directly involved in profiting from migrant smuggling. The Northeast Cartel in Nuevo Laredo has long operated sophisticated kidnapping cells. They abduct migrants en route or returned to the border city.