Mexico police found at least six dead bodies hanging at three different bridges near the tourist resort of Los Cabos on the Baja California peninsula on Wednesday (20 December).

Authorities said that the first discovery was made on a bridge in Las Veredas, near Los Cabos International Airport, where two bodies were found hanging. The other two bodies were found on a different bridge on the highway between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Later in the day, the prosecutors said in a statement that two other bodies were found on a third bridge near the airport.

The bodies had been removed from the crime scenes, an official from the prosecutors' office said.

Local media reported that "narcomantas", or signs linked with drug gangs, were recovered from the crime scenes, stating that the killings were done by the Guzmanes and Tegoripeños gangs.

The note, written in Spanish, found beside the bodies stated: "You a******s didn't believe it. This is what will happen to anyone who does not fall into line with us. It has been made more than clear that we hold all the power and that Baja north and south are ours. Hahahaha."

Condemning the incident, the governor of the state of Baja California Sur, Carlos Mendoza Davis, said authorities are investigating the shocking incidents. "I condemn these acts and any expression of violence. Today more than ever in #BCS we should be united," he tweeted.

Drugs-related violence is not new in Mexico, where the whole country is affected with gang wars. In Baja California Sur state alone, nearly 451 murders have been reported in the first nine months of the year, according to the Mexico News Daily.

In an unrelated incident, a mass grave with the bodies of 14 people —11 men and three women — was uncovered in the mountainous Valparaiso region in June. Prosecutors said some of the bodies were dismembered and there could be more victims at the site. DNA tests will be carried out on the bodies to determine their identities.

Mexico drug war
A woman holds a placard that reads 'Stop the drug war' during a march with human rights activists and families of victims of violence, in Monterrey, Mexico REUTERS/Daniel Becerril