he said authorities received a phone call alerting them to the presence of two minivans on a dirt access road near lake chapala , which is popular with tourists and american retirees .
they are clearly messages alongside their victims ' bodies .
that was an police found 18 mutilated , headless bodies near a lake popular with tourists and american retirees just outside guadalajara , mexico , a massacre that authorities blamed on the zetas drug cartel .
police found 18 dismembered and beheaded bodies inside two vans in an area frequented by tourists near the city of guadalajara in western mexico , authorities said wednesday .
the zetas cartel , which was founded by ex - members of the mexican military , controls most of eastern mexico and much of the north .
officials said the notes were signed by the zetas are battling the gulf cartel , another sinaloa cartel ally .
jalisco state prosecutor tomas coronado said earlier police found 15 severed human heads in the vans a few miles from lake chapala early wednesday morning .
photos of mexican drug cartels frequently dismember the bodies of their victims or leave them stuffed into vehicles .