Mexican authorities said Wednesday that 16 people were killed in 24 hours in the northern state across the U.S. border from California.

State officials blamed warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel for the killings and other homicides plaguing the area in recent weeks.

The Baja California state prosecutor’s office said seven people were shot to death in the border city of Tijuana in four separate gunbattles. Another man was found handcuffed with a bag over his head, and two other bodies wrapped in blankets were dumped in a residential neighborhood.

Two state investigators were shot and killed at a street-side fruit stand in downtown Mexicali. And in the beach resort of Rosarito, four people died in two shootouts.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that all the killings took place late Tuesday or on Wednesday.

In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, gunmen on Tuesday killed police commander Rodolfo Barragan in a hail of bullets at a hotel parking lot, said Alejandro Pariente, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor.

Barragan, 38, had taken over the state police car-theft division in August, Pariente said.