MEXICO, 25 January, 2021 (TON): Mexican authorities have opened an investigation for the 19 charred bodies found in several vehicles in the town of Santa Anita, close to the U.S. border, said the Tamaulipas public prosecutor’s office.

Authorities are probing the deaths in Tamaulipas state where large swaths of land are controlled by the Gulf drug cartel. Mexico is experiencing a wave of violence linked to drug gangs fighting over routes to the US.

The victims are expected to be a native of Central America, allegedly taken from a safe house operated by the members of an organized crime group in Tamaulipas state, the media reported citing the witnesses.

According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office, two burned vehicles and the remains of people on rural road as alerted by a citizen that a van was on fire.

"In one of the vans there were two bodies in the front seats, another body on the side of the driver's door, one more on the side of the passenger door and 15 bodies in the back of the vehicle," the statement read.

"Initial investigations show that death was caused by firearm projectiles and then the victims were set on fire," it added.

Prosecutors stressed that no shell casings were found in the area, indicating that the victims could have been killed in a different location.

Citing witnesses, a group of gunmen from the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), an offshoot of the Zetas crime syndicate had entered the area on Friday in search of the commander of the rival Gulf Cartel (CDG), the main criminal organization which controls the Tamaulipas area, media stated.

Since December 2006, when the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation, the country has logged over 300,000 violent deaths, mostly tied to criminal activities.

Many countries are at the verge and experiencing violence, but Mexico is going through a wave of violence associated with organized crime which is specially linked to drug cartels fighting for routes to the U.S.