MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — Forensic technicians in this border state reached an unprecedented level of incompetence or complicity in helping the state government cover-up the discovery of a clandestine grave by claiming they are unable to distinguish between human bones and animal bones such as those of cows and chickens after the discovery of a clandestine grave less than 100 yards from the Texas-Mexico border. The same forensic techs are the ones that are tasked with going over violent crime scenes in this border state.

The claims were made on Monday by the Tamaulipas government when they tried to coverup the scope of a cartel incineration operation near the Texas border. Breitbart Texas and Mexico’s El Manana Newspaper had documented the finding of the clandestine crematorium or clandestine narco-gravesite just south of the border with Texas.

After almost a week of silence, the Tamaulipas government released short statement claiming to not have found clandestine gravesite, burned bodies or other signs of the atrocities that were reported to have happened in the area known as Ejido La Bartolina. However in their own news release, Tamaulipas officials contradict themselves by going into detail into their search and recovery efforts. State officials claim to have dug in 20 different sites and in 7 of them they found various pieces of evidence.

Despite claiming to have not found a clandestine gravesite, authorities confirmed that in seven of the digs they found bones, clothing, documents and ammunition. Authorities also claimed to have found a 55-gallon drum filled with ashes and bones.

Despite having a large team of Mexican soldiers and forensic technicians with the Tamaulipas government comb the area and go over the findings, the government claims to not be able to tell the if the bones found at the digs are human or form animals such as those from cows or chickens.

The days of silence and then the release of a government “official” version follows the same narrative that Mexico’s federal government tried to push last year by claiming that 43 education students from the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero had been kidnapped by police officers and then turned over to cartel members who murdered them and incinerated the remains in a landfill in that southern Mexican state. The “official” government narrative has since been discredited by international teams of forensic experts that have spent months researching the landfill in that Mexican state and claim that a fire strong enough to have incinerated 43 bodies could not have taken place in that region.

Breitbart Texas recently concluded a lengthy investigation into missing persons in the nearby Mexican state of Coahuila and found that the rival cartel controlling that state had used a system of drums and ovens to “disappear” the bodies of their victims. Though the horrors had taken place between 2011-2013 in that matter, it wasn’t until after Breitbart Texas’ report that state authorities began efforts to arrest the individuals responsible.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.