16 bodies found in 2 cars in northwestern Mexico

The charred bodies of 16 people were found inside two separate vehicles in the northwestern Mexican city of Culiacan, local media reported on Wednesday.The first discovery was made in the center of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, at around 6:00 a.m. local time (12:00 GMT) on Wednesday when a Nissan truck was on fire. After putting out the fire, local police and firefighters found 12 burned bodies inside the truck covered with wooden boxes.About ten minutes later, an anonymous caller alerted the municipal police of the presence of the second truck, near a shopping mall in the northern exit of Culiacan, in which four more bodies were found inside.According to preliminary reports, among the victims there were three municipal policemen and the wife of one of them.Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez, the Sinaloa's state prosecutor, told local media that the bodies were found handcuffed and some of them could have been related to the 9 persons reported missing on Monday in the town of Angostura, north of Sinaloa.The bodies have been taken to the Forensic Medical Service for official identification.Higuera Gomez said that the two incidents could have been committed by the same group and local police are collecting images of surveillance cameras in the city exits to identify the criminals.Sinaloa, which is home of a major drug cartel named for the state, which has been fighting the Beltran Leyva drug cartel since it split off in 2008.It is a common practice among Mexican drug cartels to capture one or more people without ransom in return, and the victims would be found dead days later.More than 40,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched the " war against organized crimes" in 2006.