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Mexican authorities have uncovered at least 48 bags filled with human remains from a clandestine burial site near Guadalajara, officials confirmed on Thursday.
The grim discovery was made in Zapopan, a large municipality within the Guadalajara metropolitan area in Jalisco state — a region notorious for its high levels of violence and as a stronghold of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Thousands of people have been reported missing in the state over the years.
According to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, a local search group discovered the site about four weeks ago.
Authorities have since been working to recover and identify the remains, though they have yet to determine how many individuals the 48 bags represent.
“We need to make progress on the forensic issue so that we can tell you how many victims this number of bags represents,” said Blanca Trujillo, Jalisco’s deputy state prosecutor for missing persons, during a press briefing.
The recovery operation, supported by members of the Guerreros Buscadores collective and Mexico’s National Commission for the Search for Persons, has been extensive, with teams using heavy machinery to comb through the vast terrain.
Jalisco remains at the centre of Mexico’s deepening crisis of disappearances.
Official data shows more than 15,900 people are currently missing in the state — the highest figure nationwide — amid an epidemic of cartel-related violence that has intensified since the government began its militarised anti-drug campaign in 2006.
The Zapopan site adds to a growing number of clandestine graves discovered across Jalisco. Just last June, forensic experts found the remains of 34 people buried near a residential area in the same municipality.
Authorities and analysts attribute much of the violence and disappearances to the CJNG, one of Mexico’s most dangerous criminal organisations.
Earlier this year, the United States classified the group as a “foreign terrorist organisation,” citing its central role in fentanyl trafficking, a deadly synthetic opioid that has fuelled a major drug crisis in the US.
