Mayor, four policemen arrested in deaths of 10 in Michoacán

A mayor and four local police officers have been arrested in a western Mexican state in connection with the murder of 10 people who were killed and burned over the weekend, the state's governor said Tuesday.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles said in an interview that authorities initially thought the bodies found in a pickup near a gas pipeline in Cuitzeo had been somehow related to illegal pipeline taps.

However, Aureoles said that the investigation eventually revealed that police from the town of Álvaro Obregón had detained the victims.

Aureoles said that interviews "point directly to the mayor who gave the order." Without naming the mayor, he said he and four police officers had been transported to prison.

State prosecutor José Martín Godoy also said in a news conference Monday night that the mayor gave the order. "After they were detained, on instructions from the mayor, the civilians were transported to a place in Álvaro Obregón where they were killed and then they took the bodies to a property in Cuitzeo where they set them on fire," he said.

The motive appeared to be related to a rivalry over street-level drug sales, Aureoles said.

The state of Michoacán has been convulsed for years by drug violence.