Mexico counts 24 bodies in latest mass grave find

A mass grave discovered last December in a suburb of Guadalajara with dozens of bags of dismembered body parts contained the remains of 24 people, Mexican authorities said Sunday.

Six of them—a woman and five men—have been identified. They were reported missing between 2021 and 2023, the office of the state prosecutor of Jalisco state said in a statement.

The remaining 18 have yet to be positively identified, and a search is under way for the culprits.

More than 450,000 people have been murdered countrywide since Mexico launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006.

The deaths, as well as the disappearance of tens of thousands of others, has been blamed largely on organized crime.

Jalisco is the Mexican state with the highest number of missing persons—15,382 by the end of last year, according to the authorities.

The country's forensic system is overwhelmed, and tens of thousands of unidentified bodies lie unclaimed in morgues or mass graves. (AFP)