Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence.
Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific.
“We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims.
Photo: AFP
Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter have not been seen since Saturday last week.
They were on vacation near the coastal city of Ensenada in the northwestern state of Baja California.
The brothers’ mother, Debra Robinson, wrote on Facebook that they never arrived at their planned accommodation.
Santo Tomas, where the FBI reported the discovery of the three bodies, is about 45km southeast of Ensenada. More than a dozen responders, including federal agents, state police, forensic experts and military personnel, were at work on Friday on the difficult-to-access cliff area.
Mexican Navy personnel and staff from the state prosecutor’s office searched a cliff area in Ensenada earlier on Friday, the city government said.
Baja California authorities on Thursday said that three Mexican nationals were being questioned in connection with the disappearances.
“A white pickup vehicle was located, as well as other evidence,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The investigation was being coordinated with the FBI and the Australian and US consulates, it said.
An Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said it was in regular contact with the family of the missing Australians and that it “recognizes this is a very distressing time.”
“The Australian embassy in Mexico City is working closely with the Australian Federal Police and local authorities regarding the two Australians reported missing in Mexico,” the spokesperson said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the disappearances as “really concerning.”
“We certainly hope that these brothers are found safely, but there is real concern about the fact that they’ve gone missing,” he told Australian television.
Baja California is known for its inviting beaches, but is also one of Mexico’s most violent states because of organized crime groups.
Australian surfers Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman were murdered and their bodies burned while traveling in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa in November 2015.
In March last year, alleged members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans in the northeastern city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Two of them were killed.
The spiral of criminal violence engulfing Mexico has seen more than 450,000 killed and left more than 100,000 missing since the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation in 2006.
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