Mexico: Convicts sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing 122 bus passengers

Eleven former cartel members were each sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing 122 bus passengers in northwestern Mexico near the United States a decade ago, the attorney general’s office said Wednesday.

Eleven men, alleged members of the Zetas cartel, were charged with “qualified murder” — a killing committed with aggravating circumstances — during the events in 2010, according to a press release from the prosecution.

At the time, there were several reports of travelers being abducted and later found in secret graves in the U.S. border state of Tamaulipas.

The victims were “taken off the buses and later found in many clandestine graves.”

The nationality of the victims was not specified, the route through which the migrants attempted to reach the United States.

Complaints filed at the time indicated that most of the victims were Mexican travelers traveling on commercial routes, as opposed to migrants using clandestine transportation.

The buses were stopped near the municipality of San Fernando, 200 km from the border.

In August 2010, in the same town of San Bernardo, 72 migrants were killed by the Zetas.

According to the authorities, the drug traffickers wanted to forcefully employ migrants and travelers and kill them if they resisted.