Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles said in an interview with Imagen Radio today that authorities initially thought the bodies found in a pickup near a gas pipeline in Cuitzeo had been somehow related to illegal pipeline taps.
However, Aureoles said that the investigation eventually revealed that police from the town of Alvaro Obregon had detained the victims.
Speaking with Milenio television, Aureoles said that interviews "point directly to the mayor who gave the order." Without naming the mayor, he said he and four police officers had been transported to prison.
"After they were detained, on instructions from the mayor, the civilians were transported to a place in Alvaro Obregon where they were killed and then they took the bodies to a property in Cuitzeo where they set them on fire," he said.
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The motive appeared to be related to a rivalry over street-level drug sales, Aureoles said.
The state of Michoacan has been convulsed for years by drug violence.
Also, early today, unidentified gunmen killed the mayor of a town in the central Mexican state of Puebla.
A witness who was travelling in the vehicle with the mayor, but who was unarmed, told investigators that rocks had been placed blocking the highway.
Armed men then demanded money, but those in the car were not carrying any, the statement said.
He is the fifth Mexican mayor to be killed this year.