(Los Angeles) Five suspects were arrested for the massacre of six men in the Californian desert, authorities announced Monday, in a case that police believe is linked to the production of cannabis for the black market.
Six bodies were found last week in the hamlet of El Mirage, a remote corner of the Mojave Desert about a two-hour drive from Los Angeles.
All had gunshot wounds and four of them had been burned, investigators said.
Nothing had been done to hide the bodies. Two vehicles were also found at the scene, including an SUV riddled with bullets.
The police are favoring the trail of illegal marijuana trafficking “behind these murders,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told the press.
The massacre “certainly resembles cartel modus operandi,” but it is too early to attribute the killings to any such criminal organization, he added.
The five men arrested on Sunday, aged 26 to 34, were all placed in pre-trial detention.
The area where the murders were committed “is known for illegal marijuana,” the sheriff insisted. In recent years, the authorities have noted “a certain number of abandonment of corpses linked to this”, he recalled.
Cannabis became completely legal in 2018 in California. But this legalization is far from having dried up the black market: according to some estimates, it continues to be bigger than the legal market.