Deadly violence has become a daily occurrence across parts of Mexico, where its merciless narco gangs have unleashed a wave of terror as they fight for control over territories. 

Over the years, beheaded corpses have been left dangling from bridges, bones dissolved in vats of acid, and hundreds of innocent civilians - including children - have met their deaths at cartel-run 'extermination' sites. 

US President Donald Trump has formally designated six cartels in Mexico as 'foreign terrorist organizations', arguing that the groups' involvement in drug smuggling, human trafficking and brutal acts of violence warrants the label. 

Now, the Trump administration has taken a step further in its war on drugs, threatening to launch a military attack on Mexico's most brutal cartels in a bid to protect US national security. 

But for millions of Mexicans, the reality they endure is much more bleak, as they live their lives caught in the crossfire while cartels jostle for control over lucrative drug corridors. 

A bloody war for control between two factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel has turned the city of Culiacan into an epicenter of cartel violence since the conflict exploded last year between the two groups: Los Chapitos and La Mayiza. 

Dead bodies appear scattered across Culiacán on a daily basis, homes are riddled with bullets, businesses shutter and schools regularly close down during waves of violence. Meanwhile, masked young men on motorcycles watch over the main avenues of the city.

Public hangings

Earlier this year, four decapitated bodies were found hanging from a bridge in the capital of western Mexico's Sinaloa state following a surge of cartel violence. Their heads were found in a nearby plastic bag, according to prosecutors. 

On the same highway, officials said they found 16 more male victims with gunshot wounds, packed into a plastic van, one of whom was decapitated. 

Authorities said the bodies were left with a note, apparently from one of the cartel factions.