EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Mexican authorities are trying to figure out who’s responsible for leaving three severed heads on the hood of a vehicle after a gun battle Sunday in Chihuahua.
The shooting left a total of five people dead on a highway near the town of Coronado, some 150 miles south of Presidio, Texas. The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said state police officers located the bodies around three vehicles, including one struck by multiple bullets. The heads had been placed on the hood of the shot-up truck initially identified as a white Chevrolet Suburban.
Three headless bodies were also found on the scene, along with two other corpses, the AG’s Office confirmed on Monday.
The identities of the victims and the motive for the attack remain under investigation.
Chihuahua for the past three years has seen a steep increase in violence that some attribute to stepped up confrontations between the local La Linea cartel and Sinaloa cartel proxies.
Two more arrested for massacre of Mormon families
Two additional suspects have been arrested in connection with the Nov. 4, 2019, killing of nine American citizens near the Chihuahua-Sonora border.
The Mexican Attorney General’s Office on Sunday issued a statement saying Wilber M. and Tomas N. were arrested in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua in connection with the shooting deaths of three women and six children associated with the independent Mormon settlement of LeBaron.
Wilbert M. (Mexican authorities don’t release full names of suspects) is facing charges of murder, attempted murder, damages to private property and organized criminal activity. Tomas N. was arrested on organized crime charges.
The victims were shot in an apparent case of mistaken identity in an area where La Linea cartel and Sinaloa cartel proxy are fighting for control of roads that led to the U.S. border.
Adrian LeBaron, a relative of the victims, on Sunday told El Heraldo de Chihuahua that one of the detainees – presumably Wilbert M. – had ordered the burning of the victims and vehicles after the shooting.
Mexican federal authorities have arrested nearly 20 men in connection with the murders, including Roberto Gonzalez Montes, a.k.a. “32” or “The Mute,” one of the leaders of La Linea.
