Mexican police have been caught on tape allegedly carrying out orders for gangsters, according to prosecutors.

Just before dawn, five local policemen entered a hotel in Lagos de Moreno, a city in the central state of Jalisco. The video shows them escorting men out in handcuffs.

A few hours later, their bodies, beaten and strangled, were found in the town's main plaza.

It happened on January 20th 2012, but the video was only released by the Jalisco state attorney general in recent days.

It is unclear if the victims were from a rival gang. All that is known is that they were from the northern state of Coahuila.

While there have been many cases of corrupt police being sacked in Mexico, this video, which was shown on national television, confirms in stark images what many Mexicans have long suspected; that police often work for the people they are meant to hunt down.

Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Mexico City.