(Reuters) -Mexican security officials found the bodies of 19 men piled into the back of a truck in southern Chiapas state, the local prosecutor’s office said in a statement late Monday, with the victims allegedly linked to a gunfight between criminal gangs.
Five of the men showed signs of gun shot wounds, and all were found in the back of a truck wearing dark clothing, tactical vests as well as firearm magazine clips, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
The grim discovery was made near the town of La Concordia, north of Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.
In recent years, Chiapas has increasingly played host to gangland violence believed to be connected to criminal rackets including drugs and human smuggling.
The deaths may be related to a confrontation between a pair of criminal cartels fighting for territorial control in the area, according to a report from newspaper La Jornada that cites information from Mexico’s security ministry.
(Reporting by by Stéphanie Hamel; Editing by David Alire Garcia)
