Mexico authorities move to exhume bodies of Zetas cartel boss's parents

                               Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of the Zetas cartel leader, is thought to have been killed in a gun battle with Mexican marines. Photograph: AP
Investigators seek permission for exhumation in effort to find out if body stolen after shootout was that of Heriberto Lazcano.

Mexican drug authorities are seeking permission to exhume the remains of the parents of a drug cartel leader in an attempt to find out if a body stolen from a funeral home after a shootout was that of the brutal gang boss.

Heriberto Lazcano, known as "the executioner", is believed to have been killed in a shootout with marines near the town of Progreso, about 80 miles from the US border, on 7 October11 days ago. Two bodies were fingerprinted and handed over to a funeral parlour, but the following day a masked and heavily armed gang snatched both. The Mexican navy said the fingerprints revealed one of the bodies to be Lazcano.

Drug prosecutor José Cuitláhuac Salinas said they now wanted to exhume the Zetas cartel boss's parents in order to carry out DNA tests.

Salinas said Lazcano's parents died years ago, and were buried in the central Hidalgo state. An autopsy was performed on the stolen corpse before the theft and officials apparently saved blood or bloody clothing.

Read More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/17/mexico-exhume-cartel-boss-parents