Eight people from the same family, including two minors, were kidnapped by masked gunmen and their decapitated bodies were found days later in northern Mexico, authorities have said.
The bodies were found after a ninth member of the Martinez family escaped Sunday's abduction near Casa Quemada, in the state of Chihuahua, and alerted the authorities, prosecutors said yesterday.
The disappearance triggered a massive military operation in the region and the bodies were found this week.
They were all men, with the youngest aged 15 and the oldest 42.
The family was travelling in a vehicle when it was kidnapped by armed men wearing masks and dressed in military-like fatigues, the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said.
It is common for drug cartel operatives to wear military-like gear in Mexico.
The bodies of three men were found on a rural road yesterday. One was 18 years old and the two others were 25.
"People travelling on a trail found the victims," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
A day earlier, authorities recovered five other bodies that had been dumped in different parts of Casa Quemada.
Two of them were aged 15, two others 18 and the oldest 42.
Some witnesses said the family had gone to the mountain region to cut wood, while others claimed that the relatives cared for drug fields.
The mass murder took place in a region known as the Golden Triangle, which includes the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango, where drug cartels grow marijuana and opium poppies.
On July 18, 11 men travelling in three vehicles on a dirt road were killed in a remote area of Durango when they were apparently ambushed by armed civilians.
Five other men were wounded in the attack, which took place within the Golden Triangle.
US law enforcement officials suspect that Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is hiding in the region following his July 11 escape from prison.
