Human remains, found in 45 sacks dumped at the bottom of a ravine in Mexico’s Jalisco state, match eight young call center workers who have been missing since late May, local authorities said on Tuesday.
Last week, investigators in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara (west), began searching for these eight employees of the same call center and found human remains in a 40 meter deep ravine.
“The evidence (…) confirms that these are the young people who worked in a call center in Zapopan and were reported missing,” the Jalisco state government said in a statement based on the report. Forensic Experts.
The victims, two women and six men in their 30s, were last seen between May 20 and 22, according to family alerts.
Her remains were discovered near where she worked.
Based on the first investigation results, the federal government pointed out that the call center was involved in various illegal activities such as real estate fraud and telephone fraud.
The state of Jalisco is the state with the most missing persons in Mexico, with more than 15,000 since 1962.
As of 2021, about 70 bags containing the human remains of 11 people have been discovered in Tonala, near Guadalajara, the state capital.
On Tuesday, prosecutors announced that 27 bodies were discovered on May 25 in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, also in the Guadalajara suburb. Eight bodies were identified.
From December 2018 to April 2023, 136 secret graves containing 1,573 bodies were discovered in the state of Jalisco alone.
These serial disappearances “result from the decision by the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) in 2015 to expand its borders. They invaded Michoacán, Jalisco, and advanced toward Zacatecas and other parts of the country,” it said Security expert David Saucedo told AFP and sparked bloody battles.
The CJNG is led by Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho,” who is wanted by the United States and is offering $10 million to anyone who allows his capture. According to Saucedco, this cartel is attempting to monopolize the drug trade and control more routes into the United States, a strategy that includes forcibly recruiting young people and crushing local gangs.
News like this is commonplace in Mexico. On Monday, a “research collective” said they had found six bodies in Salamanca, Guanajuato state (center).
And on Tuesday, prosecutors in Colima, a western state in the country, reported finding “92 human remains and bones,” without naming the number of victims.
Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders and about 100,000 enforced disappearances since the start of a large and controversial military operation to combat drug trafficking in December 2006, mostly attributed to criminal organizations.