8 bodies found chopped, burned in shallow Mexico grave

MORELIA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican soldiers have found at least eight bodies buried in a shallow grave in the violence-plagued state of Michoacan, authorities said.

The bodies discovered on Saturday had been cut in pieces and burned, Mexico's Defense Department said in a statement.

Soldiers found the remains buried in the patio of a house in the outskirts of the city of Uruapan. Two hatchets, a knife, guns, grenades, handcuffs and ski masks were discovered inside a water tank buried near the bodies, it said.

Meanwhile, police in northern Mexico made a hospital-bed arrest of an alleged hit-team chief who had been wounded in a deadly shootout in the streets of Mexicali.

Victor Serrano was flown to Mexico City on Sunday for questioning, Baja California state Attorney General Rommel Moreno said. Three alleged members of Serrano's gang died in the Friday night shootout and 14 others were arrested.

Moreno said the cell was wanted in at least 20 murders in Baja California on behalf of a drug cartel.

The Mexico City newspaper El Universal says that more than 5,000 people have died this year in drug-related violence.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008 ... xico_N.htm