Zetas Cartel Strikes Again: Seven Dismembered Bodies Found in Sinaloa

(The Blaze/AP) – Mexican police have found seven dismembered bodies in a Pacific Coast state where the country's most-wanted man is battling its most aggressive drug cartel.

The attorney general's office says the bodies were found early Tuesday in Sinaloa along with a message accusing authorities of cooperating with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman is head of the Sinaloa cartel, and the letter's wording suggests that it may have been written by the Zetas cartel.

The bodies were found stuffed into 13 black garbage bags and dumped in a residential area, authorities said. The victims were dressed in police uniforms but authorities confirmed none of the people killed were actually officers.

The Zetas have launched tit-for-tat attacks on Sinaloa strongholds since Sinaloa cartel gunmen and their allies moved in on Zetas turf.

Last week, suspected Zetas took the unusual step of using an airplane to drop thousands of leaflets accusing Sinaloa's governor of taking orders from Guzman.

It is the most gruesome instance of drug cartel violence since the decapitated, mutilated bodies of 49 people were found strewn across a Mexican highway earlier this month.

(Related: Latest Mexican Drug War Escalation: 49 Mutilated, Decapitated Bodies Left on Highway)

The victims had their hands, feet and heads cut off. The Zetas cartel is also thought to be responsible for those murders, living up to their title as one of Mexico's most deadly cartels. Police eventually arrested Daniel Jesus Elizondo Ramirez, also known as "El Loco" or "The Crazy One," in connection with the killings.

It is becoming seemingly impossible to keep track of the death toll in Mexico's drug war, which is now around 55,000 since December 2006. Roughly 50,000 additional people have disappeared.