Mexican Search Parties Find Many Bodies in Clandestine Graves near Arizona Border

Search parties found numerous clandestine graveyards in the rural area of the Mexican border state of Sonora near the international border with Arizona. The discoveries come at a time when cartel violence has been plaguing the border state despite empty assurances made by Mexico’s government.

Some of the discoveries took place over the weekend south of the Mexican city of Nogales in a rural area known as La Comaya. Search parties found ten bodies, El Diario de Sonora reported. Of those bodies, authorities have been able to identify six and are working to identify the other four. La Comaya is just south of Nogales and approximately ten miles south of the border with Arizona.

The weekend discoveries come as the Buscadoras de La Frontera Nogales have been combing the region, searching for the resting place of their loved ones.

On May 19, the group found seven other bodies also in the Comaya region, El Universal reported.

Recently, the group found what they believe to be at least 20 bodies. Some were buried in shallow graves, others were dismembered, and others were partially incinerated.

Factions of the Sinaloa Cartel largely control the state of Sonora. However, the region has seen its share of violence due to internal fighting within the organization, as well as clashes with the rival Juarez cartel and other rival organizations.

The discovery of clandestine graves became more prevalent in recent years despite Mexican authorities continuing to claim that crime is down and pointing to a drop in murder statistics. Those stats do not include the thousands of bodies that have been found in clandestine gravesites who were initially forcibly abducted by cartels only to be murdered by their captors.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.