LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "This continues to be violence between criminal groups. This is not an attack against the civilian population," Nuevo Leon's State Security spokesman Jorge Domene says.

Domene says it appeared the victims were killed a day or two ago at a different location and that their bodies were then dropped off.

Officials said they had not ruled out the possibility that the victims could be Central American immigrants or residents of another state. Investigators say there hasn't been many local missing persons reports in recent days.

The area has long been a battleground for a brutal conflict between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, and reports of forced disappearances have become increasingly common in recent years.

Police and troops were combing the area and set up checkpoints after authorities received a report of the remains early Sunday morning.

The remains were found in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez, near the industrial city of Monterrey and about 80 miles southwest of the U.S. border.

A retired military general arrived to take over the city's depleted police force. At least five municipal employees were slain there last month, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

Federal forces have stepped up security in Nuevo Leon and the neighboring state of Tamaulipas since November 2010.

More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels in 2006.

In Nuevo Leon's capital, Monterrey nearly 400 deaths in 2011 were connected to organized crime, more than three times the number of people slain in drug-related violence there in 2010.

Among the most high-profile violence in the region was an attack on a casino in Monterrey last August that left 52 people dead. Authorities have said members of the Zetas cartel were behind that attack.

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