THE bodies of 17 men, most of them tied up in chains and shot dead, have been found dumped along a highway in a western Mexican state known as a violent battleground for rival drug cartels.

Police found the bodies on Sunday amid an upsurge in drug gang violence following the arrest of two major drug lords in recent weeks.

"Witnesses said that some people arrived in vans, threw out the bodies and left," said Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado. "They were practically all tied up with chains."

Coronado said the men may have been killed elsewhere and left in his state, since Jalisco borders on Michoacan, and both are among the states most ravaged by the country's drug violence.

The bodies were found near the farm town of Tizapan, close to the state border with Michoacan, officials said.

There have been no arrests, and no group has claimed responsibility for the crime.

Some 60,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon ordered federal troops to take on the cartels in late 2006.

The war between cartels is mainly over lucrative drug smuggling routes to the United States, but also over control of local crime rackets.

The violence seems relentless. On Friday alone, 16 dead bodies were found in northern Mexico.

Nine of those dead were found hanging from a bridge in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, a killing spree authorities blamed on drug gang violence.