Mexican official fired over bodies stored in truck says he's a scapegoat

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities fired a forensic official on Tuesday after an outcry over the storage of some 150 bodies in a refrigerated container truck that roamed towns in Jalisco state, where morgues are filled with victims of the country's drug war.

Killings in the western state, home to one of Mexico's most violent and powerful drug gangs, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, have already hit a record 16,339 so far this year, and the national homicide rate is rising having already hit its highest in modern history last year.