3 Mexicans, 6 Guatemalans sentenced to 106 years in drug massacre of 27

GUATEMALA CITY – A Guatemalan court has convicted three Mexican men and six Guatemalans on murder and kidnapping charges for the 2011 massacre of 27 farm workers. It sentenced each of them to 106 years in prison.

Judge Jeannette Valdez Rodas said Friday in announcing the verdict that the evidence showed “a scene of terror” at the killing site at a ranch in the Peten region.

The killers are believed to have been working for Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel. They decapitated most of the victims. The bodies were so badly mutilated that authorities originally put the death toll at 29, because there were so many body parts lying around.

The court said the killings appear to have been a revenge attack on the ranch’s owner for allegedly having stolen a Zeta drug shipment.