WEST PALM BEACH (AP) – Two men accused in the execution-style shooting deaths of a family along Florida’s Turnpike were settling drug debts and stealing cocaine when they ambushed the couple and their two boys, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez Jr., both 25, are charged with armed carjacking resulting in deaths, conspiracy, weapons counts and drug offenses. Both men have pleaded not guilty and their attorneys implied the family was killed by Mexican drug lords.

“The story of this trial involves drugs, guns, violence and large-scale drug trafficking,” prosecutor Stephen Carlton told jurors during opening statements, “that unfortunately led to the murders of an entire family.”

Both men face the death penalty if convicted.

Standing in front of a large photograph of the dead family in a patch of green grass on the side of the road, Carlton said: “It is shocking and horrifying to the imagination.”

Jose Luis Escobedo, 28, his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25, and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3, were shot multiple times.

Jose Escobedo lay on his back, a gunshot to his head. His wife was found face down beside him, shot 11 times, her arms still clutching her sons’ dead bodies.

The Escobedos were involved in drug trafficking with the suspects, Carlton said, explaining their role in the crime. But the “two little kids did not deserve this fate,” he said.