The search group for missing persons, “Guerreros Buscadores,” has announced the discovery of 42 sacks containing human remains on a property in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. This region holds the grim distinction of having the highest number of missing persons in the country.
This latest grim discovery comes just a week after another 12 sacks were found at the same site. The sacks were uncovered at a construction site in the municipality of Zapopan, part of the Guadalajara metropolitan area, Jalisco’s capital. Just days before these finds, at the end of June, bodies were identified from the same clandestine mass grave initially unearthed in February of this year, Figaro reports.
Links to Organized Crime and Cartel Activity
Jalisco is known as the stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which the Donald Trump administration in the United States designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” earlier this year. This cartel, along with the Sinaloa cartel, is a primary player in the fentanyl trade, a synthetic drug responsible for thousands of overdose deaths in the United States.
Mexico has recorded more than 127,000 missing persons since 2006, when the federal government initiated a military operation against drug cartels. As of May 31, Jalisco alone accounts for 15,683 cases of disappearances, according to the local prosecutor’s office. Investigators attribute these disappearances to organized criminal groups, which often secretly bury or cremate their victims.
In March, relatives of missing persons discovered shoes and clothing at an abandoned ranch in Teuchitlán, west of Guadalajara, a testament to the ongoing search efforts by families. Last Tuesday, ten members of a Mexican drug cartel were sentenced to 141 years in prison each for murder and kidnapping in Jalisco.
