At least 45 bags of human remains were found in a ravine in the western Mexican state of Jalisco during the search for eight people reported missing last week, local authorities said Thursday.
“45 bags containing human remains belonging to both men and women have been removed,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The gruesome discovery was made Tuesday at the bottom of a 40m (120ft) ravine in the municipality of Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, a large industrial center.
Authorities began searching for two women and six men, all in their 30s, who had been reported missing since around May 20.
Missing person reports for each had been made separately on different days, but investigators discovered they all worked at the same call center.
Forensic experts work this Tuesday in the transfer of several bags with human remains extracted from the bottom of a ravine in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
A helicopter extracts bags full of human remains from the bottom of a ravine in Jalisco, Mexico, this Tuesday.
The call center was in the same area where the human remains were discovered.
Forensic experts have yet to determine the number of victims or their identities.
Initial inquiries suggested that the call center may have been involved in illegal activities, and local media reported that authorities had found marijuana, a cloth and cleaning rag with apparent blood stains, as well as documents on possible business activities.
But the relatives of the disappeared accused the authorities of trying to portray the victims as criminals.
In recent years, human remains have been found in bags or unmarked graves in different areas of Jalisco.
In 2021, in the municipality of Tonalá, in Jalisco, some 70 bags were found with the remains of 11 people.
And in 2019, the bodies of 29 people were found in 119 bags in a deserted area of Zapopan.
Another case that sparked numerous protests in Jalisco was the disappearance in March 2018 of three film students, whose remains were dissolved in acid.
Authorities and forensic experts in white lab suits gather around garbage bags filled with human remains in Jalisco, on Tuesday.
Two emergency service workers hold on as they are lifted into the air as authorities work with several bags of human remains, Jalisco, Mexico, Tuesday.
Forensic experts work with several bags of human remains that were abandoned in the Mirador Escondido community in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico.
An emergency service worker guides a bag filled with human remains as it is transported by helicopter in Jalisco, Mexico, on Tuesday.
At least 45 bags of human remains were found and airlifted in Jalisco, Mexico, on Tuesday.
Also in 2018, the media reported the disappearance of three Italians, allegedly handed over by police to the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, to whom they had allegedly sold defective machinery.
The Italians have not been found despite massive searches by state and federal law enforcement.
According to local media, only in the first two months of this year, the remains of 33 people were found in five makeshift graves in the Guadalajara area.
The Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel operates in the state and is one of the most powerful organized crime groups in Mexico, embroiled in disputes with other drug cartels.
Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders and some 100,000 disappearances, most attributed to criminal organizations, since launching a controversial military anti-drug offensive in December 2006.
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