In a post on X, Chiapas governor Eduardo Ramirez detailed an operation to restore stability to Frailesca, an agricultural region near Guatemala where rival cartels have been involved in a turf war.

“Unfortunately, 15 bodies (have been found) so far in secret graves in two properties,” Ramirez wrote on Saturday.

He added that weapons, vehicles and drugs were also seized and four people had been arrested, though he did not say if they were alleged to have been involved in the deaths of the 15 people.

Mexico’s cartel-related violence is concentrated in or along drug trafficking routes, borders and ports of entry.

Chiapas, on Mexico’s southern border, has been described by the InSight Crime think tank as “a major smuggling hub of both drugs and migrants”.

There, violence has coincided with the Jalisco New Generation’s incursion into areas that were once strongholds of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s biggest drug trafficking organisations, it said.

Since Mexico launched its controversial anti-drug operation in 2006, it has recorded more than 450,000 murders and tens of thousands of people have gone missing, according to official figures.