Cartel leaves 8 bodies along migrant smuggling route with chilling warning to rival gang: ‘Chihuahua has an owner’

The bodies of eight unidentified males were recently discovered near El Paso along a notorious and heavily trafficked illegal migrant smuggling route, the El Paso Times reported.

The victims were left in a field alongside the Pan-American Highway, which connects Chihuahua City to Juárez. Authorities discovered the gruesome scene around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the media outlet.

Police reported that the eight victims showed signs of torture, including multiple stab and gunshot wounds. Some of the victims also showed signs of asphyxia. According to authorities, no bullet casings were found at the scene.

A Juárez municipal news statement explained that the cartel members who perpetrated the murders nailed a chilling message to one of the bodies with a knife that read, “Chihuahua tiene dueño,” which translates to “Chihuahua has an owner.” The note aimed to serve as a warning to a rival human smuggling gang battling for control of the trafficking route.

Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations, told the New York Post that the area where the bodies were discovered is “one of the most coveted trafficking corridors from Mexico that exist.”

“Just a few years ago, the cartels never dealt with humans, not human trafficking or human smuggling. You had human trafficking organizations and human smuggling organizations that’s all they did, and the cartels did the drugs and other things,” Avila stated. “But that’s what has completely changed. The cartels saw the amount of potential money to be made with the human [smuggling], and they’ve now taken over.”

“These human trafficking organizations and human smuggling organizations now have been incorporated and answer to the cartels, and that’s where a lot of the struggle is because, yes, the cartels do want that money to be paid to them,” he continued.

Authorities found two more victims inside a vehicle located up the road. Police believe the separate discoveries are connected, but it is unclear whether the two victims were killed by a rival gang or by their own cartel.

State Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya told Border Report, “We found a burned vehicle [18 miles] to the north that could be related to this event. They used it to move the bodies.”

“We have a precedent of homicides committed in that area directly related to human trafficking,” he added.

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