The bodies of five university students were found stuffed into a vehicle on a remote road in northern Mexico, authorities said.

The five male victims, who were all students at Latina University of Mexico, were found Sunday outside Celaya, which has been raked by cartel violence in recent years, CBS News reported. Their identities have not been released.

“I have instructed the state security institutions to implement an exhaustive operation with the support of federal and municipal agencies to reinforce security in the region and find those responsible as soon as possible; these acts will not go unpunished,”  Guanajuato state governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez wrote on X early Monday.

“I deeply regret the cowardly act where the lives of young people were taken this Sunday,” Celaya mayor Javier Mendoza Márquez shared shortly after.

Local reports said the victims were shot to death, but prosecutors did not immediately confirm that, CBS News said.

The killings come just a few months after a drug cartel set off a car bomb in Celaya and killed a National Guard officer, the outlet noted.

The incident was blamed on the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which is engaged in a years-long turf war with the Jalisco cartel.