Video circulating on social media showed a stray dog running in a street in north-central Mexico with a human head in its jaws, authorities said.
According to The Associated Press, police in the town of Monte Escobedo confirmed the incident, which occurred Wednesday.
Citing a “law enforcement official who was not authorized to be quoted by name,” the AP reported that the head and other body parts had been left in an ATM booth.
The Miami Herald reported that a person in the video can be heard saying, “Lleva una cabeza humana este perro,” which translates to “This dog has a human head.”
The video posted showed the dog trotting down a dark street and holding the head by the neck in its jaws, the AP reported.
Police eventually were able to wrest the head away from the dog, according to the AP and Mexican news outlet Aristegui Noticias.
The Herald reported that a person had reported finding the head at the ATM, along with a backpack and bloodied notes, according to El Sol de Zacatecas. The ATM is located yards from an official government building, the newspaper reported.
The human remains were left with a message about a drug cartel, according to the AP.
The town, located in the state of Zacatecas, has been the scene of a violent turf war between local gangs backed by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, the news organization reported.
According to CBS News, the U.S. Department of Justice considers the Jalisco cartel to be “one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world.” The cartel’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera, is known as “El Mencho” and is among the most sought-after drug lords by Mexican and U.S. authorities.