Twelve pictures that show why Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries on the planet

Gruesome ... victims of Mexico's deadly drug cartels

Seven bodies were found blindfolded and tied to white plastic chairs on a city centre traffic island.

They had all been executed with a single bullet.

Their crimes - begging and washing car windscreens at traffic lights.

Notices pinned to the corpses with ice-picks warned the same would happen to "muggers, car thieves and burglars as well as kidnappers, rapists and blackmailers”.

They are the latest victims of a drug gang called the Knights Templar - one of many cartels enforcing their own vigilante laws in a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

According to recent figures, drug violence has claimed more than 70,000 lives in Mexico over the last seven years - and the murder rate is on a dramatic rise.

The crime problem is so bad, foreign visitors are being warned to stay away from many parts of the country - which shares a 2,000-mile-long border with the US.

More than 300,000 Brits visited last year alone - prompting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to issue a warning on its website that reads: "The FCO advise against all but essential travel to parts of the country.

"Most victims of crime and violence are Mexicans involved in criminal activity, but the security situation also poses risks for foreigners."

As officials struggle to get a grips on the spiralling drug problem in a country of 112 million people...

Here's a chilling reminder of the high price of Mexico's drug problem.

March 2013

Three men lie dead inside a bus after unknown gunmen opened fire on them in the beach resort city of Acapulco.

May 2012

Onlookers watch as police examine the victims of a shoot-out in the capital Mexico City. 

Two women and three men, aged between 20 and 25 were killed in the gun battle.

March 2012

The burned out shells of buses and cars targetted by drug traffickers in Guadalajara.

October 2011

Nine men and a pregnant woman lie dead after a shoot-out with police in Michoacan. 
The victims were all members of the Knights Templar drug cartel.

September 2011

A traffic policeman guards 35 bodies that police uncovered in two abandoned trucks, on a motorway 
in Boca del Rio, Veracruz.

June 2011

Forensic experts inspect the bodies of five men found executed and left in the road in the Mexican 
state of Michoacan.

August 2010

The bodies of 72 men and women, executed in an abandoned warehouse, just south of the US border. 
The victims were allegedly killed by the Zetas drug gang.

May 2010

Bizarre gold-plated and diamond-encrusted guns confiscated during an army raid on a ranch 
belonging to a drug gang in Zapopan.

September 2008

A reminder of what the drug gangs are killing each other for. The army recovered $25million from a house after a raid on a house in Sinaloa state.

January 2008

An officer carries a little boy to safety after a shootout with a drug gang spills into a school in Tijuana.

February 2002

Bodies lie in the street after a shootout in Sinaloa. One of the victims turned out to be the boss of a top drug gang and one of the FBI's most wanted men.

July 1999

Police officers stand over the bodies of seven men, killed in a gun battle in a marijuana field in Sinaloa, northern Mexico.