Four killed in drug gang war

THE decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in a Mexican city ravaged by fighting between two drug lords.

A gang led by kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva said it carried out the killings in a message left with the bodies, the attorney general’s office of Morelos state said.

The beheaded and mutilated bodies were hung by their feet from the bridge in Cuernavaca, a popular weekend getaway.

Cuernavaca has become a battleground for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel since its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed there in December.

Mexican authorities say the cartel split between a faction led by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo, and another led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a US-born kingpin known as “the Barbie”.

Mexico has seen unprecedented gang violence since President Felipe Calderon stepped up the fight against drug trafficking when he took office in December 2006.

Since then, more than 28,000 people have been killed in violence tied to Mexico’s drug war.