Dozen Mangled Mexican Bodies Were Feds

Twelve people tortured, murdered, and dumped along a highway  in the Mexican state of Michoacan Monday were Mexican federal agents, the AP reports. The off-duty agents—11 men and one woman—were caught in an ambush by members of a drug cartel, officials said. The murders are believed to be revenge for the recent capture of a La Familia kingpin in MIchoacan, the home state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon and a center of his crackdown on drug traffickers.

"This marks an important change in the drug war in that they are attacking federal forces directly," a Mexican drug expert tells the AP. The attackers left this note with the bodies, the BBC adds: "The family does not kill for money. It does not kill women or innocent people. Those who die are those who must die. Everyone should know that this is divine justice." (More Michoacan stories.)