Mexican police have found at least seven bodies in an unmarked grave on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez near the US border.
Ciudad Juarez is Mexico's most violent city, with more than 1,600 killings in 2008.
More than 1,000 people have been killed already in Mexico in 2009 in suspected drug attacks amid the government's crackdown on warring cartels.
About one third of the deaths were in Ciudad Juarez which is a major distribution centre for drugs bound for the United States.
Mexican police found the bodies buried in the desert.
The head of public security in Ciudad Juarez said that the victims, all men, had earlier been taken hostage before being shot.
Last year saw more than 5,300 drug-related killings in Mexico.
The violence flared after President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels nearly two years ago, prompting armed resistance from drug barons and setting off a turf warfare between rival gangs.
