Bullet-riddled bodies of 7 men found dumped in downtown of Pacific resort city

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, October 2, 12:38 PM

ACAPULCO, Mexico — The bullet-riddled, bound bodies of seven men were dumped Sunday at a downtown bus stop in the Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo, police said, as drug violence claimed at least 20 people this weekend along a stretch of coastal tourist destinations.

A photograph published in the local newspaper El Diario de Zihuatanejo showed signed messages lying near or on top of the bloody, half-naked men, whose feet were tied to a street pole. The messages claimed to be from The Knights Templar, an offshoot of the pseudo-religious La Familia drug cartel. Drug gangs are known for leaving threatening messages at crime scenes.

Guerrero state police said agents found the bodies early Sunday in the beach town, which is popular with both Mexican and U.S. tourists. Less than two weeks ago, 35 tortured bodies were dumped onto a main avenue in the Gulf coast seaport of Veracruz.

Police did not suggest any motives for Sunday’s crime, but drug cartels have been battling each other in Pacific coast resort cities.

Police reported another homicide in Zihuatanejo hours before the bodies were dumped.

In Acapulco, just to the south of Zihuatanejo, 10 men and two women were killed in separate attacks Saturday and early Sunday, including one in which gunmen stormed a bar and shot a couple dead, police said in a statement.

Three other young men were gunned down inside a taxi cab on a popular avenue of Acapulco Saturday, police said Sunday in a news release.

Also, two gunmen shot to death a 22-year-old man near a Walmart store on the beachside avenue Costera Miguel Aleman on Saturday.

Authorities said they don’t know whether the attacks are related.

Drug-related crime has increased in Acapulco and other cities in the southwestern state of Guerrero since the arrest of Edgar “La Barbieâ€