18 Bodies found buried near Mexican resort town

Chilpancingo, Agency
Eighteen bodies were found in a clandestine grave near the Pacific resort town of Acapulco, the police director in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero told Efe Wednesday.

The search that led to the grave began after four victims were dumped at the same place on Tuesday accompanied by a message about additional bodies buried nearby.

The bodies are badly decomposed and it will take time to identify them, Guerrero police chief Fernando Monreal said, adding that more remains could be found at the site in Tuncingo, a town along the road from Acapulco to the neighboring state of Oaxaca.

Authorities don't know yet whether the bodies in Tuncingo have any connection to the kidnapping last month of a score of tourists visiting Acapulco from neighboring Michoacan state, the police chief said.

Guerrero, like several other Mexican states, is wracked by turf wars between heavily armed drug cartels. Drug-related violence has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide since December 2006.