Two Spanish men killed in Mexican state of Sinaloa

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

CULIACAN, Mexico — Police on Saturday found the bodies of two Spanish businessmen in a car dumped in a canal in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The men were handcuffed and had been shot.

The prosecutor’s office said the victims were 57-year-old Fernando Carmona and 58-year-old Jose Montoya, both natives of Spain who had been living in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Prosecutor Julio Cesar Romanillo said the two men went missing a week ago after they left a hotel in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, to visit a couple of nearby towns. Authorities said the businessmen sold clothing for a living and were in Sinaloa to sell jackets.

A sister of one of the businessmen filed a missing person report when the men didn’t return.

Their bodies were found in the backseat of a sedan in the town of El Limon de los Ramos, 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Culiacan. Passers-by spotted the rear bumper of the car, a Dodge Altima the men had rented in Guadalajara, sticking out of the canal.

The Spanish Embassy in Mexico could not be reached for comment. Sinaloa authorities said the bodies were identified by family members.

Sinaloa is home to Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, headed by the country’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Gangs often abandon their victims in cars after killing them, but authorities have not said whether this attack was drug related.

Authorities also announced this week that armed men ambushed a police chief in the northern part of Sinaloa. He survived but three of the gunmen and a police officer died in the attack.