19 Burned Bodies Found Near US-Mexico Border in Suspected Cartel Violence

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Jan 24, 2021 11:22 PM EST

Swelling Numbers Of Migrants Overwhelm Southern Border Crossings

(Photo : Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The border barrier between the U.S. (L) and Mexico runs down a hillside on May 20, 2019 as taken from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Nineteen bodies were found near the town of Camargo on the U.S.-Mexico border, a place that has seen violent organized crime in recent years.

According to Sky News, the Mexico border town where the burned bodies were found also had history of gang-related disputes recently.

Mexico's authorities added that the burned bodies were also shot before being found along a dirt road. They were found about 160 miles from the border after residents reported that a vehicle caught on fire near the area, New York Daily News added in its report

The Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office confirmed that there were some rifles and two vehicles at the scene. One of the vehicles held 15 bodies while the other held four.

"In one of the vans there were two bodies in the front seats, another body on the side of the driver's door, one more on the side of the passenger door and 15 bodies in the back of the vehicle," a statement from the prosecutor's office read.

Camargo is a town across the Rio Grande from Texas. The area is commonly fought over by cartels and criminal gangs who want to gain control of the space between the town proper and the border, said a report from The Associated Press.

Burned Bodies Also Shot, But Shells Not Found at Scene

AP News also said in its report that even though the bodies appeared to have been shot, not shells were found nearby.

Initial investigations also showed that the victims' deaths were from firearm projectiles. This led the authorities to believe that the victims were killed elsewhere and only their remains were dumped and set aflame near Camargo.

Mexican authorities have already opened an investigation following the discovery of the burned bodies, the Tamaulipas public prosecutor's office said in a report from DW.

The people killed were allegedly from Central America, presumably Guatemalans, and they were taken from a safe house related to an organized crime group.

Residents Say Camargo Murders Happened on Friday

Spanish news agency EFE also cited witnesses that said a group of gunmen from Cartel del Noreste (CDN) entered the area on Friday. They were in search of the commander of the rival Gulf Cartel (CDG) which controls the Tamaulipas area.

They have been fighting over control of certain Mexican areas since March 2010, resulting in more than 15,000 missing persons cases and thousands of deaths.

An official who spoke to AP News on the condition of anonymity said locals were too afraid to report the killings when they happened on Friday.

Camargo has been seeing high numbers of drug and migrant smuggling incidents over the past few years. The cartels fight over routes to the U.S. and other large stretches of land near the border with an aim to make money out of the items of those passing through.

Around the same time last year, 21 bodies were also found in vehicles near the nearby town of Ciudad Mier. The Mexican army killed 11 alleged gunmen days later.