Five found beaten to death outside Ensenada

Mexican authorities reported five dead and one injured on Sunday in San Antonio de las Minas, a community outside Ensenada at the entrance to the Baja California wine-growing region.

The bodies of the deceased were discovered about noon on a vacant property off the road that links Ensenada to Tecate, according to the Baja California Attorney General’s Office.

The unidentified victims showed signs of having been beaten with a blunt object, according to a brief statement by the Baja California Attorney General’s Office.

One person was taken into custody near the site of the crime and believed to be connected with the killings, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He was not identified.

Speaking with reporters at the scene, Ensenada police chief Francisco Javier Shield Galindo said that the killings did not appear to be related to organized crime.

The news website Ensenada.net reported that the killings came to light after a man leaving a store was attacked by another man with a blunt object. The latter was shortly afterwards caught and taken into custody by police.

Shortly afterwards, residents found the five bodies in or near an abandoned dwelling, according to the report. The victims were homeless men who occasionally worked as ranch hands, the report said.

A report by the Tijuana news website Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias said that neighbors reported that the detained suspect had been spotted yielding a mallet earlier in the day, and in recent days had shown an aggressive attitude.