MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Forty-five bags containing parts of dismembered bodies were discovered on the outskirts of the Mexican metropolis of Guadalajara during the search for seven missing young people, prosecutors said late on Wednesday, reported German news agency (dpa).
The Jalisco state prosecutor's office said officers were investigating the disappearance of seven call-centre workers from two farms in the Zapopan area, a suburb of Mexico's second-largest city, when they found the first bag containing body parts on Tuesday.
The human remains, belonging to both male and female victims, were in a ravine at a depth of 40 m.
Authorities said they would keep searching the site until all the human remains were discovered, stressing it was not confirmed that they belonged to the missing workers, who disappeared last week. They have so far recovered 45 bags.
Mexico has been experiencing violence of immense proportions since the so-called drug war broke out at the end of 2006.
In 2022, 31,936 people were killed in Mexico with its population of about 126 million, according to official statistics.
Much of the violence in the country comes from cartels and gangs, some of which have links to the security forces. Most crimes are never solved in Mexico.
The western Mexican state of Jalisco, whose capital is Guadalajara, is considered particularly dangerous. The cradle of the powerful cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación is currently experiencing a particularly bad wave of violence. - BERNAMA-dpa