Mexican Authorities Investigating After Alleged Cartel-Drone Attack: Report

The State of Guerrero officials confirm that five people were killed during a Jan. 4 attack. Two days later, a separate deadly shootout occurred in the state

Two days after alleged cartel-controlled drones were used during an attack in a remote Mexican village in the state of Guerrero, another city in the same state erupted in gunfire when armed men descended on a local cockfight.

The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Guerrero confirms that five people were burned to death in the January 4 attack and another six people are dead and 13 injured in the Saturday night shootout.

Running along the Pacific Coast, the southwestern state of Guerrero is dotted by marijuana and poppy fields. With the plants flourishing in the mountainous climate, impoverished farmers have given over their fields to the cartels in exchange for security in a region that has become a hotbed for drug violence.

As such, prosecutors' efforts to investigate the first set of homicides, which occurred in the tiny town of Buenavista de los Hurtados within the district of Helidoro Castillo, have been frustrated by townspeople who have not cooperated during the investigation.

The Ministerial Investigative Police had collected “charred bone remains corresponding to five people in a burned vehicle,” per prosecutors, who attributed the attack to a “confrontation” between warring criminal groups La Familia Michoacana and Los Tlacos, “who maintain a dispute for control of the area.”

But, state prosecutors said in the translated press release that when they offered relatives the opportunity for genetic testing “to determine the identity of the victims” and “to generate new lines of investigation,” they were categorically “rejected.”

Several police organizations and military groups had attempted to interview locals but prosecutors said “no information was obtained regarding people injured, missing or deprived of their freedom.”

The inhabitants of Tetela del Río had even removed the charred bones from the crime scene before investigators arrived, per prosecutors, who noted that “only one burned vehicle was found.”

The attack is believed to have involved drones operated by cartel members, as well as gunmen, according to the religious and human rights organization Minerva Bello Center, the Associated Press reports.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

José Filiberto Velázquez, the center’s director, told the AP that community members contacted the center Thursday afternoon, telling him that the cartel, La Familia Michoacana, was using drones to launch “explosive devices.” Soon after, Velázquez could not establish further contact with the town, he told the outlet.

Such tech-heavy attacks are becoming more common, with drug organizations even charging locals for cartel-operated WiFi in the country, the AP reports.

As prosecutors promised to continue that first investigation, the city of Petatlán – in the same state – was attacked by armed men who descended on the local palenque, or arena, where a cockfight was being held, per state prosecutors and Getty photographers in the area who documented the immediate aftermath.

Prosecutors said members of the criminal organization, El Gavilán, had fired at members of another local criminal group bearing the town’s name, El Ruso de Petatlán, as part of their “dispute for control of the area.” (Prosecutors did not specify if the violence at the arena was cartel-related.)

State prosecutors said the Ministerial Investigative Police “will remain in the area until these events are fully clarified and the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.