Mexican authorities believe gunmen from Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) killed at least 14 people who refused to work for them. The claim follows the discovery of a mass grave with 68 bags of human remains in the central region of the country.
The case began on February 10, when authorities first discovered numerous bags with human fragments in a mass grave in the rural community of Ocoyoacan in Mexico State, La Jornada reported.
According to various public statements from Mexico State Attorney General Jose Luis Cervantes, authorities have been able to determine that the human remains are from 13 men and one woman so far.
The discovery of the remains comes after authorities arrested a cell of nine gunmen from CJNG who had been operating in Toluca. From the subsequent investigations, authorities were able to learn of the mass graves used by the gunmen.
Preliminary investigations point to the victims having been street-level drug distributors who had refused to work for CJNG.
“The hypothesis that we have is that in fact they were street-level dealers and they had small drug stores,” Cervantes said in a televised news conference. “The way these organizations operate is that they move against those who don’t join their operation. They invite them and if they don’t receive a satisfactory answer, they eliminate them, that is what they do.”
Authorities believe that they also found the location where the victims were initially killed, but have not been able to identify the victims nor how long ago they were killed. However, they revealed that they have been collecting DNA samples in hopes of identifying them.
As Breitbart Texas has reported, authorities have found numerous mass graves in Mexico State in recent weeks. Those discoveries are all tied to CJNG expanding its operations and trying to get control of new markets. In recent weeks, Mexico State authorities have found a total of 10 mass graves.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.