Mexican police yesterday discovered the bodies of seven men and two women in the desert south of Ciudad Juarez yesterday, CNN reports. The grisly find comes as increasing violence among the country's drug cartels continues to shatter Juarez and other border cities. The conflict has already claimed over 400 lives this year. Some 5000 Mexican soldiers have arrived in the area in an attempt to stanch the rampaging violence.
"We were averaging about 10 murders a week; and since February 26, when the troops starting arriving, we have been averaging about one," said the mayor. To prevent corruption, troops will rotate every two months between the country's troubled regions, but the problem is coming from outside the country as well. "The majority of the weapons used for homicides here have been identified as coming from the United States," said one official. (More Mexico stories.)