Mexican authorities discovered at least 17 bodies dumped in an unmarked grave outside the western city of Guadalajara after arresting a suspected drug trafficker, a state prosecutor has said .
Near the mass grave, police found 1,115 kilogrammes of packaged marijuana hidden in the closets of a home, as well as methamphetamine and firearms, Jalisco state prosecutors said yesterday.
The suspected drug trafficker (23) who was taken in last week, is believed to be a hitman who acknowledged working for a brother of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.
The drug gang is among those more recently established in Mexico, and is locked in battles with the Knights Templar Cartel in the neighbouring state of Michoacan.
In an incident linked to the two gangs' bloody turf battle, at least 63 bodies were found in mass graves in an area bordering Jalisco and Michoacan in November and December.
Authorities arrested Ruben Oseguero Gonzalez, son of the presumed leader of the Jalisco New Generation, in late January.
The cartel emerged in 2010 after the murder of crime capo Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias "Nacho Coronel," a leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel and associate of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the most wanted drug trafficker in Mexico and the United States.
