Mexican authorities found 19 bullet-riddled and burned bodies near the U.S.-Mexico border in January, and 16 of them were identified as Guatemalan migrants.

According to an Aljazeera report, families of some of the 16 Guatemalan migrants killed had started burying the remains of their loved ones on Saturday in the town of Comitancillo. The town is where 11 of the victims came from.

The charred bodies of the Guatemalan migrants arrived on Friday evening at the region near the Guatemala-Mexico border. The government of Guatemala has declared three days of mourning.

The Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office earlier said that the victims' bodies and three others were found piled in a burnt pick-up truck along a dirt road in Camargo across the Rio Grande from Texas. The said area was reportedly bloodied for years because of turf battles between the Zetas cartel and the Gulf cartel.

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Guatemalan Migrants Killing

A dozen Tamaulipas state police officers were arrested in connection with the killing of 16 Guatemalan migrants and three others.

Irving Barrios, the attorney general of Tamaulipas, first announced that there were at least 12 state police involved in the killings in Camargo, according to another Aljazeera report.

Prosecutors involved in the case said the detained police officers were accused of altering the crime scene, including removing ammunition casings.

Prosecutors noted that a police report and information that the suspects gave did not match location data and phone records.

Due to the bodies being burned, it took weeks for positive identifications via DNA samples. However, families in Guatemala had already started grieving.

The two Guatemalan migrants were identified through their Maya Indigenous relatives, who have DNA samples to help investigators in the case.

Rev. Mario Aguilón Cardona, a priest from the Santa Cruz Comitancillo parish, told the crowd, including the victims' families looking at their loved ones' respective caskets at a local soccer stadium, that it was unjust that the youth lost the chance of working there and the families have to split year after year, WTOP News reported.

Some families said one of the smugglers leading the group told the families what had happened after they had suddenly lost communication with their migrating relatives since Jan. 21.

Guatemalan Government

Meanwhile, Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei said that the government is currently talking with Mexican authorities to ensure that the people responsible for the deaths of the Guatemalan migrants are punished. Giammattei added that the crime must be solved so that it would not occur again.

"The government of Guatemala expresses its absolute rejection of the atrocities committed in this massacre," Giammattei said in a Washington Times report.

The president earlier confirmed that five Guatemalan migrants had survived the attack and are currently under protection in the United States.

The Zetas cartel was known to have caused some of the violent incidents in Mexico's drug war, causing hundreds of bodies beheaded on roadsides or hanging from bridges.

Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, the Zetas drug cartel leader, was captured in 2013. Although his arrest marked a major blow against an organized crime group, experts said it's still unlikely to diminish violence in the border where it dominates through terror.

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WATCH: Mexico Arrests 12 Police in Connection With Migrant Killing - From Al Jazeera English