Mexican authorities discovered the bodies of 34 people in a mass grave in a western region wracked by cartel violence, the state prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
The remains were found during construction work in Zapopan in Jalisco state, home to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, prosecutor Salvador Gonzalez told a news conference.
Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to search for bodies following the initial discovery in February, he said.
Criminal groups in the Latin American nation often bury their victims in unmarked graves, or incinerate them to leave no trace.
Jalisco is one of the Mexican regions worst affected by a missing persons crisis that has seen more than 127,000 people vanish.
The state is a stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the drug trafficking groups classified by President Donald Trump’s administration as a terrorist organization.
The Jalisco cartel has been accused of using fake job advertisements to lure new members and of torturing and killing recruits who resist. In March, a group of people looking for missing relatives found charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected training ground for the cartel.
The cartel is led by Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, who is better known as “El Mencho.” Washington has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Criminal violence has claimed around 480,000 lives across Mexico since 2006.
Hundreds of graves have been discovered across the country. One of the largest mass graves in Mexico was reported in 2017 when more than 250 skulls were found in what appears to be a drug cartel mass burial ground on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.
More recently, in January, at least 56 bodies were discovered in unmarked mass graves in northern Mexico, not far from the U.S. border.
The month before that, Mexican authorities discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in Mexico’s northern Chihuahua state. Another 12 bodies were also found in several graves about two hours from Ciudad Juarez, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas.