MEXICO CITY – Mexican police found seven dismembered bodies hidden in barrels and a sack inside a burnt-out SUV in the central city of Metepec, officials said.

Mexico state Attorney General Alfredo Castillo Cervantes confirmed the grisly discovery Wednesday morning, although he said authorities have not identified the victims and did not provide more information.

He also did not confirm press reports that a message left alongside the bodies indicated they were members of a police force in that state.

“They haven’t been examined yet; we don’t have anyone unaccounted for in roll call. We’re going to await the examination and then we’ll know when these people disappeared, where they’re from and we’ll have more information,” Castillo said at a press conference.

All of the police forces conduct thorough roll calls to check if anyone is absent, he said.

The state attorney general refused to confirm if a threatening note was left at the crime scene and said divulging messages left by criminal gangs serves no useful purpose and only benefits those groups.

Finally, he said the state’s police forces were conducting several operations to track down the perpetrators of the massacre.

Mexico’s drug war death toll stood at 47,515 from December 2006 to Sept. 30.

The murder total has grown every year of President Felipe Calderon’s military offensive against the well-funded, heavily armed drug cartels.

Unofficial tallies published in December by independent daily La Jornada put the death toll from Mexico’s drug war at more than 50,000. EFE