Mexican gang members confess to killing 43 college students

Mexican officials on Friday announced that several alleged gang members in custody have confessed to killing 43 college students in September, The Associated Press reports.

The students were apprehended in the southern city of Iguala by police officers, who then allegedly handed the victims over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel. Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca's wife is alleged to have ties to the cartel, and gang members apparently thought the students intended to disrupt a public event being held by the mayor's wife.

The apprehended gang members described a horrific murder sequence, in which they drove the students out to a secluded area, shot them to death, then burned the bodies and destroyed the remaining bones and teeth fragments.

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"The high level of degradation caused by the fire in the remains make it very difficult to extract the DNA that will allow an identification," Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.