Mexico finds 20 dead bodies, 5 decapitated in cartel-plagued Culiacan

Mexican authorities said 20 dead bodies, including five decapitated corpses, were discovered in the cartel-plagued city of Culiacan on Monday.

Four decapitated corpses were found hanging from a highway bridge leading out of the city. The bodies’ heads were discovered nearby in a plastic bag, authorities said, according to the Associated Press.

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That same day, 16 additional dead bodies with gunshot wounds were found stuffed into a white van on the same freeway. Along with the corpses – one of which had also been decapitated – authorities found a note seemingly from one of the cartel groups. The contents of that note were not immediately disclosed, AP reported.

Culiacan, which has around 1 million residents and is the capital of western Mexico’s Sinaloa state, has been wrought by a war for control between two rival drug trafficking groups of the Sinaloa cartel – Los Chapitos and La Mayiza. 

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Mexican authorities condemned the deadly acts on Monday. However, many Sinaloa residents say authorities no longer have control of the violence, according to AP.

“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” Feliciano Castro, Sinaloa government spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday.

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Last month, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Los Chapitos and designated it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. In a statement at the time, the U.S. Treasury Department said the group facilitates the production and trafficking of fentanyl.

“Los Chapitos is a powerful, hyperviolent faction of the Sinaloa cartel at the forefront of fentanyl trafficking in the United States,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month. “At the Department of the Treasury, we are executing on President Trump’s mandate to completely eliminate drug cartels and take on violent leaders like ‘El Chapo’s’ children.”

Gunmen linked to the Sinaloa cartel were also involved in the Oct. 18, 2024, killing of U.S. Marine veteran Nicholas Quets in Sonora, Mexico.

The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Sinaloa did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.