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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

The bodies of 10 murdered people were found in front of Zacatecas Governor David Monreal’s office on Thursday, Jan. 6.

The bodies of eight men and two women were found stuffed inside a flatbed pickup truck left before dawn near a Christmas tree in the main plaza of the state capital.

On Friday, Jan. 7, Zacatecas Chief Prosecutor Francisco Murillo said seven of the bodies had been autopsied and all died of “asphyxiation by strangulation.”

Six also had injuries suggesting that they had their feet and hands bound.

Of the five bodies identified so far, three had been detained previously on drug or robbery charges, Murillo said.

On Friday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said during his daily press conference that his administration will be sending in National Guard troops to control the area and to help in the investigation.

Zacatecas, with one of the highest per capita homicide rates in Mexico, is a major transit hub for drugs, especially fentanyl, moving north to the U.S. border.

Over the course of the last year, Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel have maintained a violent turf war over control the northern rural state.

Despite the creation and massive financial influx into his National Guard since he took office three years ago, López Obrador has been unable to significantly reduce homicides in Mexico.

Monreal is a member of AMLO’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party and a close friend and confidant of the president.