SAN DIEGO (AP) — A jury convicted two men Wednesday on first-degree murder charges in the deaths of two men whose bodies were dissolved in acid for a Mexican drug gang.

Defendants Jose Olivera Beritan and David Valencia could face maximum terms of life in prison without parole when they are sentenced.

Authorities say the June 2007 killings marked an unusually gruesome display of drug violence crossing the border from Mexico to the United States.

The strangled corpses were placed in 55-gallon barrels of acid heated by propane on a ranch in San Diego County. More than two years after the killings, a witness led investigators to the ranch, where human remains were recovered.

Olivera was also convicted of a third count of first-degree murder and both men were also convicted on other charges.

Deputy District Attorney James Fontane said the men used training by a Mexican drug gang to carry out orders by a group linked to the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel.

Olivera and Valencia were the first to go on trial among 17 people who were indicted in the case in state court in 2009. Nine members of that group are in custody.

Prosecutors say the defendants belonged to a cell of the Arellano Felix cartel that broke away around 2002 when its leader was killed in an internal feud.

The leader's younger brother, Jorge Rojas, moved to the San Diego area and allegedly directed the cell in trafficking drugs and kidnapping and in killing perceived rivals until his arrest in 2007.

Rojas, 32, was convicted of kidnapping in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison. He will be tried later this year on additional charges that may make him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted.