MEXICO CITY, June 17 -- The decapitated bodies of seven men were found in Mexico's western Sinaloa state, near the heart of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's old home turf, a state law enforcement official said on Friday.

Martin Robles, Sinaloa's deputy attorney general, told reporters in the state capital of Culiacan the seven men were loggers attacked near the town of Rosario, located about 60 miles (100 km) south of the Pacific resort of Mazatlan.

In recent years, the state has been host to a number of confrontations between the army and drug traffickers, but it was not immediately clear if Guzman's notorious Sinaloa cartel was involved in the killing of the loggers.

Gruesome displays of violence have been rare in Sinaloa despite a longstanding rivalry between the Sinaloa cartel and a separate criminal organization run by Isidro Meza, also known as "El Chapo."

Robles said he could not confirm widely circulated reports from earlier this week that dozens of armed gunmen attacked the Sinaloa home of Guzman's mother.

Guzman, currently held in a prison near the U.S. border, is awaiting extradition to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering and murder charges.