About 25 bodies were recovered from an abandoned silver mine in southern Mexico, apparently victims of drug gang violence, federal police commissioner Facundo Rosas said on Sunday.
The corpses appear to have accumulated over an undetermined time as they were tossed over a 100m precipice into the abandoned mine, located near Taxco, a colonial-era city popular with international tourists. The region is dotted by hundreds of mines.
Rosas said authorities were alerted to the mass grave by a suspect and they began pulling bodies from the mine late on Saturday and continued their work on Sunday.
He didn’t give the identities or causes of death of the victims.
Police and military crews exploring the underground site wore breathing equipment to guard against the possible noxious gases in the mine.
The state of Guerrero, where Taxco is located, is plagued by drug violence among rival gangs, and marked by brazen attacks on police and soldiers engaged in a crackdown on traffickers.
However, Taxco is better known for its silver jewelry, winding streets and Holy Week processions.
Rosas said on Sunday that in an unrelated case, authorities arrested two brothers named on Mexico’s Most Wanted list for their ties to organized crime.
The brothers are suspected members of La Linea drug gang, and Rosas said they’re tied to drug dealing, kidnapping, extortion, car theft and several murders in the north Mexico state of Chihuahua.
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