Global Courant
The Mexican authorities confirmed this Tuesday that the remains found last week in bags in a clandestine grave correspond to at least eight workers from a call center in the state of Jalisco (west), who were reported missing.
The remains of the call center employees were located last Wednesday within fifty bags that forensics and lifeguards recovered from a cliff in the municipality of Zapopan, another suburb of the city of Guadalajara, capital of Jalisco.
The victims had been seen for the last time between May 20 and 22, according to complaints from their relatives.
Everything would have started on May 20, when the relatives of Carlos Benjamín reported his disappearance. That same day the disappearance of the brothers Itzel Abigail and Carlos David was also reported.
Between May 24 and 26, new reports of disappearance appeared, in this case of Jesús Alfredo, Mayra Karina, Jorge Miguel, Juan Antonio and Arturo Robles.
All the disappeared had something in common, and that is that their relatives assured that they all worked in a call center located in the municipality of Zapopan.
Forensic tests confirmed that the human remains found in bags last week correspond to a group of young people who worked in an alleged “call center” on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico.
– BBC News World (@bbcmundo) June 7, 2023
However, the federal government reported on Tuesday that the call center would be involved in real estate fraud and some type of telephone extortion, according to the first investigations. In addition, these investigations link the property where the alleged frauds were carried out with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
The Jalisco Forensic Institute confirms that the human remains found in the Zapopan ravine, in #Jaliscocorrespond to young people who disappeared from the call center
The story with @paobarquet and @hzamarron pic.twitter.com/hlYCvgZYCb
— Millennium (@Millennium) June 6, 2023
Relatives of the eight young people had also denounced the slowness of the authorities to locate their loved ones and question those responsible for the call center.
“For them there is no company, for them there is no owner, for them there is a house where there was a call center, period,” Arturo Robles, father of one of the victims of the same name, had pointed out in recent days.
Property search
Following the report of the disappearances, according to Infobae, a search warrant was obtained for the property where the disappeared persons work, located at 158 Victor Hugo street in the Jardines Vallarta neighborhood, in Zapopan.
The authorities indicated that, once inside the building, they found “Marihuena, piece of cloth with reddish stain; Plastic cable ties, mop with reddish spots; various documents as well as blackboards with annotations of names of people of foreign nationality, annotations of memberships or timeshares and economic goals to be achieved”.
Relationship with drug trafficking
Jalisco is the state in Mexico with the highest number of disappeared persons, more than 15,000 from 1962 to date, out of a total of 110,771 cases throughout the country.
Security experts from Mexico assured that one of the reasons for the recent increase in disappearances could be due to drug trafficking operations.
“The disappearances occurred as a result of the decision of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) in 2015 to expand its borders. They invade Michoacán, Jalisco, they launch into Zacatecas and other areas of the country,” unleashing bloody fights, security specialist David Saucedo told AFP.
The CJNG, led by Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho”, for whom the United States offers US$10 million, continues to expand trying to monopolize drug dealing and control more routes to the United States”, a strategy that includes the forced recruitment of young people and the extermination of local bands.
