THE bodies of nine missing students have been found dismembered reportedly alongside a bag of hands in a horror bloodbath in Mexico.

The grim discovery was made inside the trunk of an abandoned car in San Jose Miahuatlan, on the border of the states of Puebla and Oaxaca, around 175 miles from Mexico City.

Five of the students’ decomposing remains were sprawled under a blood-soaked tarp, while the remaining four were found twisted inside the vehicle’s trunk.

Authorities believe the shocking scene could be yet another ruthless cartel execution.

Investigators also uncovered that each student reportedly had their hands chopped off and crammed into a bag, which was then stuffed inside the car trunk by a highway.

The victims, originally from Tlaxcala, were last seen on February 27 after reportedly heading to Oaxaca’s popular beaches.

Three days after the students were reported missing, authorities discovered a dark grey Volkswagen Vento with Tlaxcala plates abandoned along the high-traffic Cuacnopalan-Oaxaca highway, reports Periodico Central.

Among the victims believed to be identified are Angie Lizeth, 29, Brenda Mariel, 19, Jacqueline Ailet, 23, Noemi Yamileth, 28, Lesly Noya Trejo, 21, Raul Emmanuel, 28, Ruben Antonio, and Rolando Armando.

The ninth victim remains unidentified.

So far, no suspects have been named.

The Puebla Attorney General’s Office is working alongside law enforcement agencies in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca in a desperate attempt to track down those responsible.

Surveillance footage from February 24 shows the students’ vehicle traveling along the Atlixcayotl highway near Atlixco, around 90 miles west of where their bodies were found, Periodico Central reported.

Authorities have not given much information on the probe into their deaths.

Idamis Pastor Betancourt, head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, told reporters on Monday: “So far I cannot offer information. There are lines of investigation, but I cannot reveal them due to confidentiality.

“All relevant investigations are being carried out. When we have a response and the investigation is complete, we will be in a position to provide more information.”

CARTEL HELL

Mexico is in the grip of an escalating cartel war, with 2023 marking the country’s deadliest year in recent history — over 30,000 murders, many linked to drug-fuelled violence, were recorded.

Cartel slayings are often accompanied by stomach-churning brutality.

Beheadings, mutilations, and mass graves have become grim calling cards for the country’s ruthless criminal organisations.

Cartels don’t just kill — they train recruits to embrace carnage.

The CJNG, estimated to have 5,000 members, runs La Escuela de Terror — the School of Terror — where initiates are desensitised to bloodshed through extreme violence, including cannibalism.

By 2020, Mexican authorities had discovered 63,428 mass graves, with 92,658 bodies unearthed — victims of a cartel war that spares no one, not even women and children.

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