For years, Mexican drug cartels and other criminal organizations have used clandestine graves to dispose of their victims’ remains and conceal their activities. Ditches, deep holes, and improvised cremation furnaces were among the most popular ways. However, according to a new revelation, cartel members in northern Mexico are now using septic tanks to conceal and dispose of corpses.
An alleged victim who escaped an attack by cartel gunmen in October 2024 in Tacuichamona, Sinaloa, a little village less than 40 miles southeast of Culiacán, backs up this story.
According to the Mexican news outlet Proceso, the guy called Sabuesos Guerreras, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding missing people in Mexico, after authorities rejected his report.
The individual told the group that he and four others were traveling to Mazatlán when they were ambushed by armed individuals at a nearby convenience shop. The attackers then led them to a deserted area used as a wastewater treatment plant, stripped them of their garments, and began firing. The bodies were later disposed of in septic tanks, he stated.
The man survived and spent 24 hours inside one of the tanks before escaping. Several months later, he phoned MarÃa Isabel Cruz Bernal, president of Sabuesos Guerreras, to report the location.
“I knew we were going to find something here, but I still can’t believe it — this is losing all sense of humanity,” Cruz Bernal told Proceso.
She stated that the group alerted the Sinaloa prosecutor’s office, but officials claimed they had already reviewed the site and discovered the material to be bogus.
“But no, if you had heard the young man, you’d know he wasn’t lying — so we came. As soon as we opened the first grave, a body floated up, then another, and another.”
Cruz Bernal reported the discovery of three bodies inside the tanks on May 16.
“One of them still showed signs of fear, of pain,” she said.
Further research at the site has revealed additional evidence that criminal gangs utilized the treatment plant to dispose of dead. Volunteers and officials uncovered human bone fragments immersed in sewage, including ribs, shoulder blades, and a phalanx.
Eight Months of Turf Wars in Sinaloa
Homicides and disappearances have increased in Sinaloa since an internal struggle broke out in September 2024 between sections of the Sinaloa Cartel, including Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, over control of the organization.
According to the news outlet Noroeste, 1,325 homicides had been reported in the state over the previous eight months as of May 21. During the same time, 1,454 people were reported missing or suspected of being abducted.
However, Proceso claims that the majority of individuals who have gone missing have yet to be found. Only 35% of the approximately 1,500 reported missing people have been discovered, with only 25% still alive.
Last month, volunteers from Sabuesos Guerreras uncovered what seemed to be a clandestine cemetery with 13 decomposing bodies.
According to El PaÃs, the Mexican government has “given up” on tracking the number of clandestine graves uncovered nationwide. According to the outlet, the most recent formal effort to keep an up-to-date record occurred in 2023. At the time, authorities knew of 5,698 clandestine burials uncovered between 2006 and 2023.
Communities across Mexico continue to report new finds nearly weekly, predicting a rise in that number.
Amidst the mounting outrage surrounding the Izaguirre Ranch case in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, federal authorities quietly disabled public access to a website that recorded clandestine grave sites across the country.
The now-inaccessible documents show that 2,863 locations were found between December 1, 2018, and April 30, 2023. Data compiled by the Interior Ministry and referenced by Infobae México show that only Veracruz (668) has more clandestine burials than Tamaulipas (554) and Sinaloa (484).
