DST News: Mexican investigators have uncovered a clandestine burial site in a rural community near the resort city of Cancun, where the remains of at least 16 people have so far been recovered. Authorities say the victims have not yet been identified.
Raciel López Salazar, the attorney general of Quintana Roo, said the site was found in Leona Vicario, a town about 42 kilometers (26 miles) west of Cancun. He added that forensic teams have identified five additional sections of interest that still need to be excavated, meaning the number of victims could rise.
Authorities located the skeletal remains in 10 separate burial points, many of them covered with cement and quicklime, a method commonly used by criminal groups to speed up decomposition and prevent detection.
Mexico currently has more than 133,000 registered missing people, most of whom have disappeared in the last 20 years amid an escalation of organized crime and cartel violence. While clandestine mass graves are frequently uncovered in states like Jalisco, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz, such discoveries are less common in Quintana Roo, a region primarily known for its beaches and tourism.
Still, officials noted that the state has long been a strategic area for drug trafficking networks and migrant smuggling routes, which have drawn the presence of criminal groups to the region.
Source: AP
