A violent drug cartel is suspected of leaving a severed human leg found hanging from a pedestrian bridge Wednesday in Toluca, just west of Mexico City. Before the day was out, parts of at least two bodies had turned up around the city.

At the bridge, the trunk of the body was left on the street below, near the city's center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel.

Other parts of the body were found later in another neighborhood, also with handwritten drug cartels signs nearby. The victim was apparently a man aged between 35 and 40.

Then parts of at least one other body were found elsewhere in the city.

Police discovered a dismembered body in a neighborhood on the city's east side, along with a sign similar to those in the first case.

Later, in an industrial neighborhood on the north side, parts of a body were found in a burning car. Authorities were investigating whether they were parts of the second dismembered body.

The gruesome discovery comes just a day after the bodies of four men and two women were found lying on the side of a street near the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

The mayor of Toluca, which is the capital of the State of Mexico, appealed for calm. The Familia Michoacana has dominated rural areas in the state for years, but may now be trying to take over the state capital.

"The issue of crime brings us all together, and we all have to fight it," said Mayor Raymundo Martínez Carbajal.

Last week, threatening banners were left in another suburb of Toluca, and they were also signed by the Familia Michoacana.

The gang originated in the neighboring state of Michoacan in the early 2000s, and while it has been largely chased out of its home state, it has found a new lease on life in the State of Mexico and neighboring Guerrero state.

The Familia Michoacana has become known for carrying out ruthless, bloody ambushes of police in Mexico State and local residents in Guerrero. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the cartel "has specialized in methamphetamine production and smuggling, along with other synthetic drugs."

Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on the Familia Michoacana cartel, which it accused of manufacturing "rainbow" fentanyl pills purportedly aimed at children.

Discoveries of mutilated bodies dumped in public or hung from bridges have increased in Mexico in recent years as criminal gangs seek to intimidate their rivals.

Last year, the severed heads of six men were reportedly discovered on top of a Volkswagen in southern Mexico, along with a warning sign strung from two trees at the scene.

In June 2021, two heads and other human remains were left at polling stations in the border city of Tijuana on election day.

In:
• Mexico
• Cartel