Thirteen people were murdered late Friday and Saturday in organized crime and drug-related violence in Mexico, including seven in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
In violence-stricken Ciudad Juarez, three unidentified men killed the security director of a physical therapy and sports center, said local justice spokeswoman Daniela Gonzalez.
The city has become Mexico's murder capital as drug cartels fight a turf war for control of the lucrative drug trade to the United States, the world's biggest cocaine consumer.
Two other men -- a security guard and a waiter -- were shot down in a bar by a group of unidentified attackers. Witnesses said an armed commando riddled with bullets two other young men, aged between 20 and 25, killing them with a final gunshot to the head.
The decapitated bodies of two unidentified women were found early Saturday in a vehicle in Mexico City, the local attorney's office told AFP.
"A neighbor notified police that a fetid odor was coming from a vehicle. When the trunk was opened, the corpses were found wrapped in a blanket on the back seat next to a cooler that contained the heads of the two female victims," a justice official said on condition of anonymity.
In January alone, 20 people were found beheaded in Mexico, the vast majority attributed to organized crime, out of a total of 463 homicides that month, according to media tallies.
{{/usCountry}}In January alone, 20 people were found beheaded in Mexico, the vast majority attributed to organized crime, out of a total of 463 homicides that month, according to media tallies.
{{/usCountry}}Some 5,300 people were killed throughout Mexico in 2008, according to official figures, despite a government crackdown that saw the deployment of nearly 36,000 troops.
Most of the violence takes place close to the US border. Over 1,600 were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, which has already seen 250 victims this year.