ACAPULCO, Mexico — Police found the bodies of 15 men, 14 of them headless, on a street outside a shopping center in this Pacific coast resort area Saturday. The victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 20s, were discovered in an area not frequented by tourists.

Handwritten signs left with the bodies were signed by “El Chapo’s People” — a reference to the Sinaloa cartel, headed by drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — said Fernando Monreal Leyva, director of investigative police for Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.

The narco-messages indicated the Sinaloa cartel killed them for trying to intrude on the gang’s turf and extort residents.

Mexico’s drug cartels have increasingly taken to beheading their victims in a grisly show of force, but Saturday’s discovery was the largest single group of decapitation victims found in recent years.