Nine held over Mexico murder wave

These suspected gang members in the Mexican city of Guadalajara are accused of carrying out about 80 murders.

The suspects, aged between 15 and 29, are also accused of 14 kidnappings.

Police believe the killings include the 26 people whose bodies were discovered in three abandoned vehicles in Guadalajara last November.

Their alleged leader says he was involved but not as a killer.

SOUNDBITE: Francisco Daniel Yeme Gomez, accused gang member, saying (Spanish):

"I was just an accomplice. I didn't kill anybody. Erasmo and el Ninote shot them. Erasmo is dead. The other one is alive but I don't know where he is."

The other murders attributed to the gang include the slaughter of four rivals in August 2010 and the killings of three men a month later thought to have laundered money for another group.

Mexico's president sent the army in five years ago to crack down on the country's drugs cartels.

In that time about 50, 000 people have lost their lives.

Paul Chapman, Reuters