

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities responding to an anonymous tip on Sunday discovered about 50 mostly mutilated bodies dumped on the side of a highway between Monterrey, Mexico's wealthiest city, and the U.S. border.

The bodies of at least 43 men and half a dozen women were found in plastic garbage bags near the town of Cadereyta Jimenez, the location of a large state-run oil refinery, officials in the state prosecutor's office told The Times. The exact number of dead was being sorted out, confused by the condition of the bodies.

Army and police troops descended on the site and temporarily closed the highway, a major thoroughfare from Monterrey to the border city of Nuevo Laredo.

Sunday's discovery apparently was linked to a string of increasingly violent attacks as rival drug-trafficking gangs battle for control of the lucrative northeastern corridor of Mexico. Gangs often leave their victims in public venues as a warning to their enemies.