Violence erupted between two of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels on Christmas Eve as gunmen shot down nine men in the their home in the western state of Sinaloa. The bodies were then found dumped on a sports field, according to officials.
The killings were the result of territorial disputes between "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa cartel and the Beltran-Leyva cartel,which can count the paramilitary Zetas among their allies, said Sinaloa state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez in an Associated Press report. El Platanar de Los Ontiveros has become another town embroiled in the escalating claims for trafficking territory by Mexican drug cartels.
"Everything is linked to a dispute for territory and the buying and selling of drugs," Gomez said.
Despite army checkpoints being nearby on the lookout for drugs, gunmen were able to burst in and open fire on the nine men in their house eating Christmas Eve dinner. One of the victims was even decapitated with a machete and the killers left bodies at a sports field. Gomez thinks the men were entered town on foot and were able to avoid capture by staying away from the roads.
Further down south in Mexico, violence has claimed the lives of seven since Sunday as cartel conflicts between the borders of the states Jalisco and Michoacan have increased. Local media outlets report that there may be as much as a dozen or so new killings in the two states but state officials have yet to confirm the reports.
Even the capital of Michoacan, Morelia, has started experiencing more violence. A report confirms that 41-year-old mother Maria Elena Lopez Bautista and her three children were tied up with wire and burned to death in their home.