PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. -- Five dead bodies were discovered Saturday in a burned vehicle off Interstate-8 at milepost 151 in the Vekol Valley area.
Border Patrol said early Saturday morning they attempted to stop an SUV, but were unsuccessful. A few hours later they came across the burned vehicle with several bodies inside.
Investigators said that no one was found in the driver’s seat or passenger’s seat. There was one body in the back seat, and four more piled up in the back of the vehicle.
It is still too early to identify the bodies, and a possible motive has not been determined.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu did note that Vekol Valley is known for drug trafficking.
"That's when the Border Patrol agents went up to the vehicle with fire extinguishers and realized there were bodies inside, clearly deceased," the sheriff said.
None of the five killed was in the SUV's front seat. One was in the second row and the other four bodies were found "laying down flat in the cargo area," Babeu said.
A cause of death for the victims, who have not been identified, is not yet known.
The charred vehicle was the same make and model as the one spotted by the Border Patrol agent hours earlier.
Authorities are investigating whether the bodies found are linked to violence by Mexican drug cartels. The incident took place in the Vekol Valley, a hotbed of drug- and human-smuggling activity, according to Babeu, who said his department conducted 350 high-speed chases in the area last year in an effort to curb such crime.
"It looks like it's a cartel hit, where they exact revenge on people," the sheriff said, calling a drug connection "very likely" while noting there's been no definitive conclusion yet. "It happens all the time in Mexico; our fear and concern is that this violence is spilling over deep into the heart of Arizona."
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