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. 
 
 Jalisco state Prosecutor Tomas Coronado said earlier police found 15 severed human heads in the vans a few miles from Lake Chapala and his office confirmed later in a statement that three more heads had been found along with the other body parts. 
 
 "The bodies are dismembered," Coronado said in an interview transcript provided by his office. 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. 
 
 The vehicles were towed to government offices to unload the bodies. 
 
 The area has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco New Generation gang, allied with the Sinaloa cartel, and the Zetas drug cartel. 
 
 Mexican drug cartels frequently dismember the bodies of their victims or leave them stuffed into vehicles. The gangs also frequently leave hand-written messages alongside their victims' bodies, and Coronado said that such messages were found in the vans. 
 
 "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," Coronado said. 
 
 Coronado also said the killings may have been linked to the abduction of 12 people who later escaped in the same area on Tuesday. A woman who was allegedly watching the captives was detained. She told investigators that the kidnappings were "a repercussion of what happened in Tamaulipas." 
 
 That was an apparent reference to the slayings of 23 people whose bodies were found Friday in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, in northern Tamaulipas state. The bodies were found hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall Friday in Nuevo Laredo, where drug cartels are fighting an escalating turf war. 
 
 Messages were found in Nuevo Laredo threatening the Gulf cartel, which has joined Sinaloa to battle the Zetas. The killings could be part of a wide-ranging, tit-for-tat battle between Sinaloa and the Zetas, in which both sides have been known to massacre dozens of people accused of supporting the rival gang. ||||| 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. 
 
 A phone call alerted police to two vans on a dirt road near Lake Chapala early Wednesday morning. When police opened the van, they found 18 headless and dismembered bodies inside. Some were so badly mutilated that police have still not determined their gender. The bodies appear to have been refrigerated after death. 
 
 Handwritten messages were found in the van. "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," said Tomas Coronado, prosecutor for the state of Jalisco. Officials said the notes were signed by the Zetas. 
 
 PHOTOS of Mexican drug cartel violence. 
 
 Los Zetas have been battling the Jalisco New Generation gang, a minor cartel allied with the Sinaloa cartel, which is the Zetas chief rival for dominance of the Mexican drug trade. The Zetas cartel, which was founded by ex-members of the Mexican military, controls most of eastern Mexico and much of the north. 
 
 A woman detained yesterday in connection with the separate kidnapping of 12 people in the same area told police that the abductions were connected to events in Tamaulipas state. Two dozen men and women were found decapitated or hanging from bridges in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, on Friday, where the Zetas are battling the Gulf cartel, another Sinaloa cartel ally. 
 
 Click Here for the Blotter Homepage. ||||| MEXICO CITY — Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, or “40,” leader of the brutal Zetas paramilitary drug cartel, has been captured, authorities on both sides of the border confirmed. 
 
 Known as much for his brutality as for his binational ties, Treviño Morales, who has ties to the Dallas area, was captured by Mexican marines early Monday near the border town of Nuevo Laredo, signaling the biggest victory against organized crime for the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto. The Zetas’ rise to power in Mexico changed the dynamics and ushered in a new era of violence across the country. 
 
 A picture obtained by The Dallas Morning News showing a beaten and bruised and somewhat overweight Treviño Morales was taken hours after his detention, one official said. 
 
 “He had a reputation of leading the most vicious group in Mexico,” said one law enforcement official. “This is a huge symbolic way to end his career.” 
 
 The capture of Treviño Morales, 40, drew immediate reactions on both sides of a border he had terrorized for years. 
 
 The fact he was captured without a fight caught some, including former FBI agent Arturo Fontes by surprise. Fontes has been tracking Treviño Morales for nearly a decade and believed that he would never be captured alive. 
 
 “He had told his closest associates he’d rather be captured dead than alive,” he said, adding that the region and “Mexico in general is breathing a sign of relief today. I’m especially pleased for so many families, so many victims who may now be able to know what happened to their loved ones. Who killed them and why?” 
 
 Mexican intelligence officials, with some help from U.S. intelligence, had been monitoring the area for months. 
 
 No shots fired 
 
 About 3:45 a.m. Monday, Treviño Morales and two companions were traveling on a dirt road between Nuevo Laredo and the state of Coahuila when authorities, in vehicles and a helicopter, gave chase. The vehicle carrying Treviño Morales was stopped without a shot being fired. Inside, authorities found $2 million, nine weapons and 500 rounds of ammunition, said Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez, spokesman for Mexico’s interior secretary. 
 
 Also captured were Treviño Morales’ security guard and treasurer, men identified as Abdon Federico Garcia and Ernesto Reyes Garcia. 
 
 Authorities say Treviño Morales had been in Nuevo Laredo visiting his newborn child and was headed back to Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, one of his hiding places in recent weeks. 
 
 Fontes, however, said he doesn’t believe the capture of Treviño Morales will lead to a decline in violence, at least not in the near future. The Laredo-Nuevo Laredo border is considered a key entry point into the U.S., with the so-called NAFTA highway — Interstate 35 — a prime possession for any cartel. In the days to come, rival cartels and corrupt police authorities will try to muscle in and fill the void left by the arrest, officials said. 
 
 Treviño Morales and the Zetas had grown organized crime from simply drug trafficking to extortion, kidnapping, piracy, prostitution and human trafficking, authorities say. 
 
 The Zetas are believed to be behind the killing of hundreds of poor migrants from Central America who were captured and killed on their way to the U.S. In one incident alone, more than 269 migrants were killed near the town of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, just miles from the Texas border. 
 
 “History will show that Chapo Guzman [Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel] was the bigger narco, but ‘40’ was the villain, the enforcer and game changer, the one who changed the landscape for Mexico, introducing unimaginable violence to the country,” said Fontes, one of the U.S. agents personally threatened by Treviño Morales. “This is a huge hit for the new government.” 
 
 Former U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza added, “This is a big hit, and you can’t underestimate the signal it sends to the Zetas, and to those within other organizations that have chosen to resort to what can only be called ‘narco-terrorism.’” 
 
 “I am certain there are many within the law enforcement community, both U.S.. and Mexican, who are reflecting on their lost colleagues this evening and know that this was the man responsible for so much suffering,” Garza said, adding the name of Jaime Zapata, a Homeland Security investigations special agent whose vehicle was ambushed in February 2011 by members of the Zetas believed to be operating under the orders of Treviño Morales. 
 
 “More broadly,” Garza added. “I think this administration is saying they mean business.” 
 
 The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City congratulated the government in a statement and said, “This is yet another advance by the people of Mexico in the dismantling of organized crime.” 
 
 Likely successor 
 
 Treviño Morales’ younger brother, Omar, who was also raised partly in Dallas, is likely to be the new leader of the Zetas. Omar Treviño Morales, known as “42,” is known as the Zetas leader in the Piedras Negras area, across the Texas border town of Eagle Pass. 
 
 One of the groups to watch closely is the Gulf cartel, which originally recruited members of the elite Mexican special force squad that later reinvented themselves into the Zetas. 
 
 Unlike the founders, Treviño Morales had no military background and, like the majority of the Zetas today, represents more an image of thugs than disciplined army deserters. 
 
 His knowledge of the northeastern region and his brand of brutality — beheadings and corpses hanging from bridges — made him a threat to residents on both sides of the border. How his capture affects the violence across Mexico remains to be seen. 
 
 “Unclear, hard to say,” said one law enforcement official. “But things may worsen before they get better. I expect a lot of rivals jockeying for position, which may make the situation more violent.” 
 
 Treviño Morales came of age as a criminal in North Texas, setting deep roots in Mesquite where some family members, including his mother and sister, still live. He was born and raised in Nuevo Laredo, but moved to North Texas as a teenager. He later returned to his hometown and rose from car washer and chimney cleaner to street thug, authorities say. He has many nicknames, among them, “Death” and “Chacal,” because he was a night owl who roamed the back streets of Mexico. 
 
 He was wanted in the U.S. in connection with a 2006 double homicide in Texas and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine into the U.S. 
 
 According to court documents and U.S. authorities, Treviño Morales used North Texas as his playground. Last May, his older brother Jose was convicted by a jury in Austin of money laundering. He faces up to 20 years in prison for funding a racehorse operation with millions of dollars from the Zetas. His operation was based in Lexington, Okla., and North Texas. Sentencing is set for Sept. 5. 
 
 Treviño Morales had a $5 million bounty on his head placed by the U.S. government, $2 million by the Mexican government, and had rivals of his cartel gunning for him. 
 
 Follow Alfredo Corchado on Twitter at @ajcorchado. 
 
 TIMELINE 
 
 The drug career of Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities and court documents: 
 
 1993: Is arrested in Dallas, accused of evading arrest. Not much is known about his time in Dallas as a boy and teenager. 
 
 Late 1990s: Moves back to Nuevo Laredo, where he becomes a teenage gofer for the Los Tejas gang. Runs drugs across the border; is recruited into the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, which absorbed Los Tejas. 
 
 Late 1990s: Joins the Zetas, who work as hit men and bodyguards for the Gulf cartel. 
 
 Around 2005: Is promoted to boss of the Nuevo Laredo territory and given responsibility for fighting off the Sinaloa cartel’s attempt to seize control of the Gulf cartel’s drug-smuggling routes. Is accused of orchestrating a series of killings on the U.S. side of the border, several by a group of young U.S. citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets. American officials believe the hit men also carried out an unknown number of killings on the Mexican side of the border. 
 
 2006: Gulf cartel and the Zetas defeat the Sinaloa cartel in Nuevo Laredo, then begin spreading south and setting up networks that involve transit routes for drugs and migrants, extortion, kidnapping, trafficking in pirated DVDs and CDs, and other criminal activities. 
 
 March 2007: Is sent to Veracruz following the death of a leading Zeta in a gunbatttle there. He and Zeta head Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano begin pushing for independence from the Gulf cartel after cartel head Osiel Cardenas Guillen’s extradition to the U.S. 
 
 2008: In February, Lazcano, now head of an independent Zetas cartel, sends Treviño Morales to Guatemala, where he is responsible for eliminating local competitors and establishing Zetas’ control of smuggling routes. Accused of orchestrating the military-style ambush of Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon in March. 
 
 2008: Is named by Lazcano as national commander of the Zetas across Mexico. 
 
 2009: Is indicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in New York in 2009 and Washington in 2010, and the U.S. government issues a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. 
 
 2012: Becomes chief of the Zetas when Lazcano is killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in the northern state of Coahuila. Lazcano’s body is stolen from a small-town funeral home by gunmen, and some doubt that the former soldier had been killed. 
 
 July 15, 2013: Is captured by Mexican marines near Nuevo Laredo. 
 
 SOURCES: U.S., Mexican authorities; court documents
– There's no end in sight to the horrific tit-for-tat Mexican drug cartel murders. In the latest atrocity, some 18 decapitated and dismembered corpses were found dumped in two cars near a lake in Guadalajara popular with tourists and retired Americans, reports ABC. The bodies, which were so badly mutilated that investigators have not been able to determine the gender of all the victims, appeared to have been refrigerated after death. Police believe the slaughter was the work of the Zetas cartel, which is waging a bloody turf war against the Sinaloa cartel in the area. The killings have been linked to the attempted kidnap of 12 people in the area earlier in the week, AP reports. A woman arrested after the victims escaped told investigators the kidnappings where "a repercussion of what happened in Tamaulipas" state, where the corpses of nine men and women were found hanging from a Nuevo Laredo bridge last Friday and the heads of another 14 people were dumped in front of city hall.