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The bodies of 27 people, almost half of them young men who had been decapitated, have been found in Mexico in the space of just a few hours.
Headless Bodies Found
The 14 headless bodies were discovered alongside a 15th intact corpse outside a shopping centre in the popular tourist resort of Acapulco.
Handwritten signs were left with the bodies - a common calling card for the Mexican drug cartels.
A police report said the victims were between 25 and 30 years of age.
"The heads were found in one single place, with the exception of one that was half severed from the body and with an impact of a projectile from a firearm," it said.
Reforma newspaper reported that the men were killed by the Sinaloa cartel, headed by drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, for intruding on the gang's turf.
At least a dozen more bodies were found at several scenes of violence around the city early on Saturday.
Two police officers were shot dead in front of tourists and locals in a major tourist area.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drugs war since the government launched a major military crackdown in 2006.
The bodies in Acapulco are the largest single group of decapitation victims to be found since President Felipe Calderon began his offensive against the drug gangs.
Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, has also been the scene of a bitter turf battle between rival drug gangs.
Two dismembered and skinned bodies were dumped at the entrance of a bar there after Christmas.
Nine decapitated men were found in the state capital of Chilpancingo in 2008.
A group of 12 decapitated bodies were left the same year piled outside the Yucatan state capital of Merida.
This week five bodies were found in the northern state of Chihuahua.
They included a woman who had been tortured and her decapitated head stuffed into a plastic bag and left beside her body.
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