Police in the Mexican city of Guadalajara are investigating after six people were found alive with their hands cut off and warning note pinned to the body of a seventh victim.
“This is what happens to scoundrels,” read the note, which was signed “sincerely, the Anti-Rat Group”, according to local media reports.
Authorities in the western state of Jalisco believe that the mutilations were related to unpaid drug debts or a settling of scores within a criminal gang.
The victims – six men and one woman between the ages of 24 and 44 – had been kidnapped at various points in the Guadalajara area on Monday and abandoned in the municipality of Tlaquepaque.
“This was to teach a lesson and generate terror among those involved in these [criminal] activities,” Jalisco state prosecutor Eduardo Almaguer said.
Two suspects have been arrested in the case, while the victims were recovering from their injuries.
