Forty more bodies found in Mexico mass graves

Apr 26, 2011, 22:14 GMT

Mexico City - Forty more bodies were found in mass graves in the town of San Fernando, bringing to 183 the gruesome total for the region in recent weeks, Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales said Tuesday.

Most of the dead are believed to have been passengers forced off buses by the criminal gang Los Zetas in Mexico's north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, which borders on the US. Only two of the bodies have been identified and handed over to their families so far. DNA testing was ongoing.

Morales also said in her statement that 74 suspects have been arrested, including 17 municipal police officers.

The death toll also continued to mount in Durango province, in central Mexico, where 17 bodies were found in a mass grave in the city of Durango, officials said Monday. That brings the Durango death toll to 75 in recent weeks.

Mexican police also freed 51 migrants who had been abducted and were being held by criminals in Tamaulipas in Reynosa, Mexico, across the US border from McAllen, Texas. All told, 119 people have been rescued in Tamaulipas over the last week.

'Among those rescued there were 14 Guatemalans, two Hondurans, two Salvadorans, six Chinese and 27 Mexicans,' Mexican authorities said late Monday.

Last August, after police found the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants in San Fernando, a survivor said Los Zetas tried to recruit them for criminal activities and killed them when they refused.

Criminal gangs are robbing and extorting illegal migrants on their way from Central and South America to the United States, trying to induce them to smuggle drugs or forcing them into service for the gangs. Many are killed.

Read more about Mexico Crime

Read more about Migration