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Fifty-nine bodies have been found buried in a series of pits in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, near the site where suspected drug gang members massacred 72 migrants last summer, officials said.

Security forces stumbled on the site on Wednesday as they were investigating reports that passengers had been pulled off several buses by gunmen in the area in what may have been an attempt at forced recruitment by a drug gang.

State and federal authorities conducted a raid that netted several suspected kidnappers and freed five kidnap victims.

Then they made a grisly discovery - a total of eight pits, containing a total of 59 corpses. One of the pits held 43 dead.

The Tamaulipas state government said 11 suspects were detained.

Tamaulipas state interior secretary Morelos Canseco said two of the dead were women. Many of the victims found in the pits appeared to have died between 10 and 15 days ago, dates that would roughly match the bus abductions, he said.

Canseco said state officials began getting reports that gunmen had been stopping buses, starting around March 25. At least two more cases were reported in the following days. The buses were allowed to continue on with their remaining passengers in each case.