Four people were killed on Sunday in what authorities described as a showdown between neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” and drug-trafficking gang “Los Rastrojos.”
The bodies were found by police in the Zaragoza municipality, located in the northwestern Antioquia department.
According to locals in the area, the four victims had arrived from the southwestern Valle del Cauca department, the heartland of the Rastrojos, just days before the shooting.
The bodies would be transferred to the morgue of Zaragoza for further analysis, reported radio station Caracol.
The Bajo Cauca region where the shooting took place has seen heavy fighting between the Rastrojos and the Urabeños over drug trafficking routes to the Caribbean.
READ MORE: Colombia’s strategic southwest lures criminal groups, ignites bloodshed.
Fighting between the two groups has been reported in several Colombian departments. In early January, combat between them displaced some 800 people in the western Choco department. The drug traffickers are also reportedly locked into a deadly struggle to control the strategic Valle del Cauca department.
READ MORE: Fighting between armed gangs in Western Colombia displaces hundreds.