The bodies, some burned, found in the northern border town of Tamaulipas that’s convulsed by fighting to control drug trafficking

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Mexican authorities are investigating a battle between two suspected gangs that left at least 20 bodies, 17 of them burned, in a border town near where Donald Trump will visit on Thursday to win support for his plan to build a wall.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily morning news conference that initial information pointed to a “battle between two groups”, and that security officials would later provide further information.

A Mexican security official said that authorities discovered 20 bodies on Wednesday, 17 of them burned, outside Ciudad Miguel Alemán, which is about 90km (56 miles) from McAllen, across the Rio Grande river. Five burned vehicles were also found near the bodies, the security official said.

Mexico maelstrom: how the drug violence got so bad Read more

Trump is headed to McAllen, Texas, on the US border. He has threatened to declare a national emergency if Congress does not meet his demand for billions of dollars to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

He has justified that demand by saying that undocumented migrants, criminals and illegal drugs have been pouring across the border, although statistics show illegal immigration has fallen to a 20-year low, and most drugs are believed to enter through legal ports of entry.

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Photos shared with Reuters by a state official show charred bodies scattered along a dirt track in scrubland, alongside burned-out vehicles.

One body was wearing the remains of a baseball cap bearing the letters and logo of the local Gulf cartel, while others wore the remains of bullet-proof vests with the same insignia.

Turf wars between the Gulf cartel and its chief rival, the Zetas, have been a key source of bloodshed over recent years in Tamaulipas, one of the most violent states in Mexico.

Luis Rodríguez, a spokesman for state police, said in a statement that it appeared gunmen from the Gulf cartel had fought with members of the North-east cartel, a group that split off from the Zetas.

Tamaulipas has been a major conduit for drug shipments and has also been the scene of some of the worst massacres and fiercest fighting in Mexico’s drug war.