Mexico City, May 20 (EFE).- A total of 16 bodies were found by the security forces at two locations in Tamaulipas, a state in northeastern Mexico, officials said.
The bodies of three women and four men were found Sunday night in an SUV abandoned on a closed street in the port city of Tampico, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group, or GCT, said.
The killings are related to internal conflicts involving "the presumed criminal groups operating in the zone," the GCT, a joint federal and state agency, said in a statement.
The bodies of five men and four women were discovered Monday morning in a farming community outside the city of Hidalgo, the GCT said in a separate statement.
Three dwellings were torched near the site where the unidentified bodies were found, the GCT said, adding that the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office was handling the investigation.
The federal government said last week it was deploying more security forces units in Tamaulipas and planned to purge the state's law enforcement agencies in an effort to stop a spike in drug-related violence.
Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong announced the expanded deployment a week ago in the border city of Reynosa, unveiling a "new phase" of the federal security strategy for Tamaulipas aimed at restoring to residents "the peace and safety they deserve."
Patrols will be stepped up at ports, airports, customs posts, border crossings and highways, with inspections of prisons and nightspots where criminal activities occur being expanded, Osorio Chong said.
The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States for years.
