Authorities in Mexico have found 45 bags with human remains in a ravine outside the city of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state.
In an official statement on Thursday, the prosecutor’s office for Jalisco state said that following a tip-off in the search for seven young call centre workers, who had been reported missing last week, police official had started searching at the Mirador del Bosque ravine where they found the bags that included body parts of both men and women.
The seven went missing from two farms in the Jardines Vallarta and La Estancia neighbourhoods of Guadalajara, it added
A search operation involving firefighters and civil defence officers with police and a helicopter crew is currently underway.
The prosecutor’s office added that personnel from the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences are assisting in the processing of the scene, while forensic officials are trying to determine the number of bodies and causes of death, in addition to their identification.
A black plastic bag with human remains was first found on Tuesday, but due to the difficult terrain and the lack of natural light, the search operation resumed on Wednesday and will continue until all the remains are located, it noted.
The office also clarified that it could not be immediately ascertained that the remains belong to the seven missing workers.
According to government figures, more than 100,000 people are currently missing across Mexico, with many being victims of organised crime, the BBC reported.
Government data has revealed that many disappearances have occurred since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderon launched his “war on drugs”.
Three quarters of those reported missing were men and one fifth were under the age of 18 at the time of their disappearance.
Jalisco is the heartland of a violent drug war, and some of the most powerful groups operating there include the Jalisco New Generation cartel, and their rival, Nueva Plaza, which split from the CJNG in 2017, sparking violence across Guadalajara.
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