TIJUANA, Mexico – The kidnapped head of the department of motor vehicles in the northern Mexican state of Baja California was found dead Friday, his mutilated body left hanging from a bridge in Tijuana, authorities said.

Sources in the state Attorney General’s Office identified the victim as Rogelio Sanchez Jimenez, who was abducted Wednesday in the city’s La Sierra neighborhood.

Motorists alerted police to the body dangling from a bridge on the road linking Tijuana and the seaside town of Playas de Rosarito.

Sanchez’s head was wrapped in adhesive tape, with his severed genitals stuck in his mouth, Efe confirmed at the scene.

He was kidnapped Wednesday morning while driving with his daughters. Armed men in an SUV rammed Sanchez’s vehicle and then grabbed him when he stopped the car and got out.

Also Friday, authorities in the southern state of Guerrero discovered the bodies of 10 men who were all apparently killed by a single criminal organization identifying itself as “El jefe de jefes” (The Chief of Chiefs).

A total of six victims were found in Chilpancingo, the state capital, while the other four turned up at various spots in and around the Pacific resort town of Acapulco.

All of the men were bound and gagged and each had been killed by a shot to the back of the head.

One group of bodies was accompanied by a sign reading, “this will happen to all the kidnapping and extorting rats,” signed by “El jefe de jefes.”

Left with one of the Acapulco victims was a message saying “the Alebrije discotheque will relax, this is the robber of tourists.”

“El jefe de jefes” is the title of a popular song by Los Tigres del Norte as well as the nickname of crime boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who has been behind bars for several years.

Some of the outfits battling each other to dominate Mexico’s lucrative drug trade attempt to portray themselves as defenders of their communities through vigilantism directed at thieves and rapists.

The nationwide death toll from drug-related violence, according to unofficial press tallies, stands at more than 5,600 this year.

Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in a bid to crush the drug cartels. EFE