By Agencies

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Mexican authorities have found more than 20 bodies in vehicles left around a major traffic intersection in the western city of Guadalajara, local media and officials say.

The bodies were found early on Thursday in several vehicles around a major traffic intersection in Mexico's second city alongside a message from drug cartels, according to several local media.

Mexican drug cartels frequently leave threatening messages with the bodies of their victims as a way of sowing fear and taking credit for their actions.

An official with the state police said that the bodies were found in three vehicles.

On Wednesday, Mexican authorities found the burned bodies of 16 people in a strikingly similar attack in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and home state of the country's powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Twelve of the bodies were in the back of one truck, some of them handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.

Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, has deployed the army to crack down on powerful criminal gangs and some 45,000 people have died in the conflict since he took office.

The government has captured or killed dozens of high-level drug smugglers.