Two heads found after vehicle set on fire in Mexico City

[News_Editor]

Two heads found after vehicle set on fire in Mexico City

2012-01-12 09:19:39 GMT+7 (ICT)

MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) -- Two heads were found on early Wednesday morning after a vehicle was set on fire in front of a shopping center in Mexico City, officials said.

The incident happened on early Wednesday morning when a Honda CR-V was set on fire at one of the access gates to Mexico City's exclusive Santa Fe shopping center in front of the Palacio de Hierro department store. Security guards at the shopping center reported it to authorities.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and were able to put out the flames, only to discover two headless bodies inside the vehicle. A short time later, two heads were found a couple of feet (meters) from the vehicle.

Authorities believe the bodies and heads belong to the same people, but few details have been released. Authorities cordoned off the area and closed a part of the Mexico-Toluca highway as an investigation was carried out, officials said.

As Mexico continues to struggle to cope with an influx of criminals while President Felipe Calderón continues his campaign against organized crime and drug cartels, it is not uncommon for criminal groups to decapitate people and drop them off in public areas. According to official figures, at least 12,903 people died as a result of drug-related violence in the first nine months of 2011 alone.

On Monday, the bodies of thirteen people with gunshots to the head, among them at least three children, were dumped near a gas station in an area known as 'La Mangana' on the Suprema Junta Nacional Americana boulevard which is within the city limits of Zitácuaro, a city in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Their bodies were dumped with a written message directed at 'El Guero,' which translates as 'The Blonde One' or 'Blondie.' No other details about the message were immediately released, but he is considered to be the apparent leader of an organized crime group which operates in Huetamo, a municipality in the southeastern corner of Michoacán.

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