MORELIA, Mexico – Drug-related violence claimed the lives of 15 men in different cities in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, state officials said.

Three men were shot dead early Tuesday on the road that links Zinapecuaro and Acambaro, located 90 kilometers (about 56 miles) north of Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, state officials told Efe.

The victims had been bound and their bodies showed signs of torture.

State police found the bodies of six men during the day Tuesday in a wooded area in Tancitaro, a city 170 kilometers (about 106 miles) southwest of Morelia.

The victims in Tancitaro were tortured and shot to death, and their bodies were dumped in twos in the communities of Santa Catarina, El Aguacate and La Tinaja.

Army troops, meanwhile, killed four suspected drug traffickers in a shootout in El Jaripo, a town outside the city of Villamar, located 189 kilometers (113 miles) northwest of Morelia.

A man who was apparently being held hostage by the gunmen also died in the firefight, investigators said.

Finally, a man was gunned down in Majada del Sol, a community outside the city of Coalcoman, which is in southwestern Michoacan.

Michoacan has been plagued by a wave of violence blamed on the turf war between the Los Caballeros Templarios and La Familia Michoacana cartel.

Los Caballeros Templarios was created in March 2011 by former members of the La Familia Michoacana.

Servando Gomez Martinez shares the leadership of Los Caballeros Templarios with Enrique Plancarte.

Michoacan, which has more than 270 kilometers (168 miles) of Pacific coastline, has forests and mountain areas that provide perfect cover for drug production and smuggling.

Illegal drugs are smuggled from Central America into Michoacan and then later moved into the United States. EFE