72 migrants found dead had been kidnapped by gang

SEVENTY-two people found dead at a ranch near the Mexican border with Texas were migrants who had been kidnapped by an armed group.

The bodies of 58 men and 14 women were discovered late on Tuesday when marines manning a checkpoint on a highway in the northern state of Tamaulipas were approached by an injured man who said he had been attacked by a gang of gunmen at a nearby ranch.

The man said he and other migrants had been kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to the ranch in San Fernando, a town about 100 miles south of Brownsville, Texas, according to an official.

The official said police believe the migrants were mostly from Central America — a population that has been increasingly targeted by drug gangs who demand money from US-bound foreigners or who kidnap them to claim ransoms from relatives.

Investigators have not determined who was behind the massacre, but the federal official noted that the area was controlled by the Zetas drug cartel, which has diversified into kidnapping migrants.

The scale of the massacre appeared to be unprecedented even by the gruesome standards of Mexican drug cartels.

It was unclear if all 72 were killed at the same time — or why. Another federal official said investigators believe the victims were killed within recent days.

The newspaper Reforma, citing a police report, said the victims had been trying to reach the US border and were killed when they refused to pay extortion fees demanded by the armed group. Reforma said the survivor was from Ecuador.

The Mexican navy said it had dispatched aircraft to check out the man's report, and when the gunmen saw the marines, they opened fire and tried to flee in a convoy of vehicles. One marine and three of the suspects were killed in the shootout.

Navy personnel seized 21 assault rifles, shotguns and rifles, and detained a minor.

The youth, who was apparently part of the gang, was handed over to civilian prosecutors.

It was the third time this year that Mexican authorities have discovered large masses of corpses. In the other two cases, investigators believe the bodies had been dumped at the sites over a long period of time. In May, authorities discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned mine near Taxco, a colonial-era city south of Mexico City that is popular with tourists.

In July, investigators found 51 corpses in two days of digging in a field near a rubbish dump outside the northern metropolis of Monterrey. Many of those found were believed to have been rival traffickers. But cartels often dispose of the bodies of kidnap victims in such dumping grounds.

The region has been besieged by a turf battle between the Zetas and their former ally, the Gulf cartel.

Mexico's drug violence has surged since president Felipe Calderon dispatched soldiers and police to root out drug traffickers from strongholds in northern Mexico and along the Pacific coast. More than 28,000 people have died since the offensive began.