More murders in Mexico

There have been lots of examples of violence like this in Mexico recently. Just a few days ago nine bodies were found hanging from a bridge.

17 bodies found dumped along road in Mexico

Seventeen bodies were found dumped along a road in western Mexico, according to police, in what appeared to be a drug gang killing.

The Telegraph,

16 September, 2012

"The 17 bodies were semi-naked, with their feet and hands tied, and they had chains around their necks," said a security officer from Tizapan El Alto, a small town near where the bodies were found, almost 70 miles from Guadalajara, the capital city of the state of Jalisco.

Tizapan is near the border with the state of Michoacan, home to the "La Familia" drug gang and its offshoot, "The Knights Templar," which have been mired in a bloody struggle for control of the area.

More than 55,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico under the administration of Felipe Calderon, who launched a war on traffickers shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Separately Mexican prosecutors said one in three drug trafficking suspects received prison sentences during the first five years of President Felipe Calderon's administration.

The report from the federal Attorney General's Office says Mexican drug enforcement authorities recorded 3,439 drug suspects arrested, but only 1,072 actually went to prison. The report doesn't specify what happened to the other suspects arrested.

The report says authorities made the most drug trafficking arrests in 2009, with 866 suspects detained and 122 sentenced to prison. Last year, authorities arrested 772 suspects and sent 574 to prison. The report says the Mexican justice system was being reformed during the period studied.

Mexican officials also extradited 502 people between Dec. 1, 2006, and the end of 2011, with 478 of them sent to the United States.