At least 14 bodies found in Mexico mass grave

MEXICO CITY — Police said Wednesday that they have uncovered a mass grave in central Mexico with the remains of 14 or 15 people believed to have been executed by the Zetas drug gang.

The remains found in Guanajuato state were so badly burned that officials were not immediately able to identify the number of victims, and it may be difficult to identify the dead.

Guanajuato Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa said the 14 or 15 bodies were piled into a single pit discovered on Saturday, a day after a shootout between police and suspected Zetas hit men in the town of Apaseo el Alto.

In the shootout, 12 gunmen were killed, 12 were captured and one police officer was wounded, officials said. The dead gunmen were not the bodies in the mass grave.

A large cache of weapons, including assault rifles, grenades and bulletproof vests, was also discovered after that clash, Zamarripa said. Investigations into the confrontation led police to the grave site.

In the Pacific port city of Manzanillo, customs officials announced Wednesday they had seized more than four tons of precursor chemicals commonly used to make Ecstasy.

The drugs were found inside an abandoned shipping container that arrived on a ship from Shanghai, China. On Tuesday, authorities announced the discovery of nearly 1,000 pounds (450 kilos) of cocaine hidden in a shipment of tires from Colombia in the same port.

In Veracruz state, police found a decapitated body and severed head miles apart Wednesday.

Residents in Boca del Rio discovered a man’s beheaded body with its hands and feet bound. The body also showed signs of torture — trademarks of drug-related homicides, authorities said.

Police refused to make public a note from the killers attached to the body.

Authorities in a nearby city later said that they had found a severed head, presumably belonging to the body in Boca del Rio.

Veracruz, one of Mexico’s most important ports, has seen increasing violence in recent years. State prosecutor Salvador Mikel said at least five people died Monday in several drug-related slayings in the city. Earlier this month, gunmen kidnapped a top customs official who had launched a new system to check shipping containers at the port. He remains missing

Mexico is suffering a wave of gang violence that has killed more than 10,800 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a military-led crackdown on drug traffickers.