Mexico City ( CNN ) -- Mexican authorities were investigating Wednesday after finding the dismembered bodies of 15 people inside two vehicles on a highway in western Mexico , state media reported . Investigators were working to determine the ages , genders and identities of the victims , Jalisco state Attorney General Tomas Coronado Olmos said . The bodies , found in two vehicles on a highway between the cities of Guadalajara and Chapala , could be connected with the kidnapping of 12 people in a nearby municipality , Coronado said , according to the state-run Notimex news agency . The discovery occurred more than five months after authorities found 26 bodies in three vehicles near a monument on one of Guadalajara 's main avenues . Jalisco state has seen an increase in violence since 2008 , as clashes increase between drug cartels over trafficking routes and local drug sales . Several weeks after the bodies were found in November , state prosecutors said they had arrested three men who masterminded those killings . The suspects , they said , were members of the Milenio cartel , which is allied with the Zetas and fighting for territory in the region with the powerful Sinaloa cartel . More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels in December 2006 , according to government statistics . But brutal cartel killings have been less common in Guadalajara , Mexico 's second-most populous city . CNNMexico.com contributed to this report .
Prosecutor : Investigators are working to determine victims ' ages , genders and IDs . The incident could be linked to a kidnapping that occurred nearby , a state prosecutor says . Authorities find 26 dismembered bodies inside 15 vehicles on a highway . Several weeks , two bodies were found inside vehicles in Jalisco .