Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mexican security forces have been battling drug cartels for years

The skulls of at least 166 people have been found in a mass grave in Mexico's eastern state of Veracruz.

State prosecutor Jorge Winckler said the skulls and other human remains had been there for at least two years.

The exact location is not being disclosed for security reasons, he added.

Drug traffickers have used Veracruz as a dumping ground for their victims for many years. In March 2017, 250 skulls were found in another mass grave there.

Mr Winckler told reporters that investigators had also found about 200 items of clothing, more than 100 identity cards and other personal belongings. Officials are focusing on the skulls to work out the exact number of victims.

Drones and ground-penetrating radar are helping to locate the remains and forensic experts are still working at the scene, officials added.

Mr Winckler could not rule out finding more victims.

Relatives of people who have disappeared in Mexico have long been campaigning for more to be done to help them find their loved ones.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has soared since 2006 when the army was deployed to fight the powerful cartels. Since then more than 200,000 people have been killed, including a record 28,702 last year.

Another 37,000 people are registered as missing.

Victims include cartel members but also migrants heading to the US who refuse to be recruited.</s>MEXICO CITY—Law enforcement officers have discovered 166 human skulls buried in a clandestine grave in the violence-plagued state of Veracruz, unearthing more gruesome evidence of Mexico’s epidemic of cartel-related kidnapping and murder.

Investigators had been searching for the remains for more than 30 days using drones, radar and metal probes, after being tipped off to the location of the mass grave by an informant, according to the office of Veracruz’s state prosecutor.</s>Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Mexican investigators said Thursday they found a mass grave in the state of Veracruz that contained at least 166 human skulls.

In a statement, Veracruz Attorney General Jorge Winckler Ortiz said body parts and clothes were also found in the mass grave, but skulls were counted to determine the most accurate number of how many people were buried there.

Winckler said the human remains appear to have been buried there for two years, but did not give details on how or who was responsible for the burial site. But he said the investigation is ongoing and his office is committed to identifying the remains.

The area is a known hotspot cartels, which have been suspected of using mass graves before. In the past several years, there have been numerous examples of mass graves found throughout Mexico.

In March, at least 250 human heads were found in a mass grave in Veracruz.

In 2016, more than 100 human bodies were found in a mass grave in the Mexican state of Morelos.</s>Mexican authorities say they found a clandestine grave with the remains of at least 166 people in the state of Veracruz — the latest mass grave in a place that has been marred by disappearances, warring drug cartels and government-sponsored violence.

Veracruz Attorney General Jorge Winckler said at a Thursday news conference that the site was discovered after a witness tipped off authorities about a month ago.

Since that time, investigators uncovered at least 166 skulls, he said. They also found 200 garments and other personal items, including more than 100 IDs. More may be uncovered.

Winckler would not disclose the location of the graves, citing unspecified security reasons. Investigators located the remains with drones and radar.

The bodies were buried at least two years ago, he said.

His office did not immediately respond to NPR's requests for comment.

More than 35,000 people have disappeared in Mexico — including nearly 9,000 women and 6,300 minors, according to the National Registry of Data on Missing and Disappeared Persons.

This burial site is not the first mass grave uncovered in the state of Veracruz. Two years ago, family members grew frustrated with government inaction and took it upon themselves to search for loved ones. They found more than 250 bodies buried in an abandoned lot.

Griselda Barradas, the mother of a young state investigator whose remains were identified at the site, told NPR's Carrie Kahn, "My son thought he was going to clean the country of these bad people. But no, instead they got rid of him."

Winckler told media that site was likely used with the complicity of state officials.

Many of the state's mass graves are thought to be tied to the former governor, Javier Duarte. He was extradited from Guatemala to Mexico, and now sits behind bars while he awaits a trial on corruption charges.

"This is the latest confirmation of the degree of impunity drug gangs operated in Veracruz during Duarte's government. He allowed this to happen," Maria Elena Morera, the head of an advocacy group called Causa en Común, told the The Wall Street Journal.

Veracruz is also home to one of Mexico's biggest and oldest ports, and drug gangs such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Zetas have waged bloody battles to control the territory.

Winckler said Thursday that relatives of people who disappeared were not invited to participate in the August search "for security reasons and to guarantee the success of the investigation." Instead, he said, they will be shown a catalog with photos of items recovered from the grave to help them identify victims.

That decision has upset some family members of people who went missing.

"I don't trust the attorney general, the agency," activist Lucia Diaz of the Mexico-based Colectivo Solecito told NPR. She said she believes that 166 bodies cannot be excavated properly in a short period of time "without the help of the federal police."

Winckler did not assist them as they spent two years excavating the other Veracruz grave, digging five days a week, she said. "There is a history of bad relations between us because he's isolated us, he doesn't talk to us – the mothers."</s>A mass grave containing the remains of at least 166 people has been discovered in the coastal state of Veracruz in Mexico, according to CNN.

On Thursday, after what has been more than a month-long search following a tip, officials were able to locate the site through the use of drones and ground-penetrating radar. Inside the mass grave, investigators unearthed the skulls of at least 166 people, along with a further 200 pieces of clothing, and 144 identity documents and other personal belongings.

Veracruz Attorney General Jorge Winckler Ortiz said authorities were told about the existence of the grave last month.

Evidence at the site of the grave leads investigators to believe the deaths may have occurred a few years ago. Winckler estimates they have been there for at least two years.

Because of the nature of the crime and the fact that it is an ongoing investigation, authorities were not able to divulge any further details about who the people are, or how they may have ended up in a mass grave.

The area, along with that of Nuevo León, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Michoacán, has sadly seen this scale of major crime before, with mass graves being discovered fairly often in the states.

Cartels such as Los Zetas, El Cartel del Golfo, and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación all have heavy presences in these states, where regular law-abiding civilians fall prey to their criminal activity. Other regular victims of the cartels include immigrants from South American countries headed to the U.S. who “refuse to be recruited,” according to the BBC.

There is no confirmation as yet that the latest mass grave discovery is linked to any of the cartels.

At this stage, authorities are working on identifying the victims in an effort to return their remains to their loved ones. Genetic analyses of the remains is being matched up to databases containing missing persons reports. They further have plans to release photographs of the items of clothing and other personal belongings found in the grave, in the hopes that someone will be able to identify them and lead to the identification of some of the deceased.

Winckler has reiterated his call for families to report any missing loved ones to authorities.

A mass grave discovered in 2017 yielded the remains of more than 300 people in Colinas de Santa Fe, Veracruz. The area is a regular “dumping ground” for drug traffickers.

The total number of people reported missing in the country that have yet to be found totals over 300,000.</s>MEXICO: Mexican authorities discovered at least 166 bodies at a mass grave site in Veracruz state, prosecutors said Thursday (Sep 7), the latest horrifying find in a region hit by bloody drug cartel turf wars.

Home to the city of Veracruz, one of Mexico's largest ports, the eastern state has a history of corrupt politics and grisly power struggles between rival cartels - a toxic mix that has caused an explosion of violence.

"The remains of at least 166 people have been found" in the latest mass grave site discovered in Veracruz, state prosecutor Jorge Winckler told journalists, making it one of the largest such sites so far.

The grave is located in central Veracruz, but authorities are not releasing the exact location for security reasons, he said. Forensic specialists are still working at the scene.

Winckler said investigators had also found 200 articles of clothing, 144 ID cards and other personal belongings at the site since exhumations began on Aug 8.

An informer told authorities that hundreds of people in all were buried at the site, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Based on forensic analysis of the discoveries, it had been determined that these are clandestine burial sites which are at least two years old," it said.

Authorities have used drones and ground-penetrating radar to help them locate the bodies.

They released photographs of investigators combing through the thick vegetation at the site, wearing white protective suits and gloves.

There are at least 32 separate grave sites, they said.

Activists accuse the state's jailed ex-governor, Javier Duarte, of presiding over a rash of human rights abuses in Veracruz.

Two former state police chiefs and a string of ex-officials have been charged with running hit squads that abducted and presumably killed unwanted individuals during Duarte's administration, from 2010 to 2016.

Duarte himself is in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges.

Investigators accuse him of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to buy luxury properties, Miami vacation homes and thoroughbred horses, leaving the once-wealthy state on the verge of bankruptcy.

Some 3,600 people have gone missing in Veracruz since 2006, according to the new government.

Families of some of Veracruz's legions of missing persons are still digging at another mass grave found in 2016, where 280 bodies have been discovered so far.

They recently announced they had received a tip-off from drug traffickers about another mass grave near that site containing as many as 500 bodies.

It was unclear whether the grave described by prosecutors was the same site.

Mexico has been hit by a wave of violence since deploying the army to fight the country's powerful drug cartels in 2006.

Since then, more than 200,000 people have been murdered, including a record 28,702 last year.

Another 37,000 people are reported as missing.</s>Mexico City, Sep 7 (IANS) Mexican authorities have found 166 human skulls and other remains in a mass grave in Mexico’s Veracruz state.

Veracruz Attorney General Jorge Winckler Ortiz on Thursday said the 3,200 sq ft mass grave was found after a tip-off that came in last month, reports CNN.

The search yielded 200 pieces of clothing, 144 IDs and personal belongings.

Evidence indicated the deaths may have occurred a couple of years ago, he said in a statement.

The authorities have not provided details on how the people were killed or where the site is located, given an ongoing investigation.

Genetic examinations of the remains will be matched with databases that include information on missing persons.

Veracruz, along with Nuevo León, Guerrero, Jalisco and Michoacan, are among the states where significant amounts of human remains have been discovered in mass graves, CNN said.

In 2016, 299 bodies were found in another clandestine grave in Colinas de Santa Fe, Veracruz.

Cartels such as Los Zetas, El Cartel del Golfo and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación have a heavy presence in those states.

Non-governmental groups and federal authorities have reported that there are more than 30,000 people currently reported missing in Mexico.</s>Last year, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, authorities announced that they had found a mass grave filled with more than 250 human skulls.

At the time, state prosecutor Jorge Winckler told news station Televisa that "once we have opened all the mass graves in the state, [Veracruz] could become the biggest mass grave in Mexico, or even the world."

On Thursday, Winckler announced that another mass grave had been discovered, again in Veracruz. This time, more than 160 human skulls were found inside.

As many as 40,000 people are missing across Mexico, and about 30,000 are known to have been killed last year. Violence in Mexico is widespread, and Veracruz in particular has suffered from bloodshed in recent years. Officials have not revealed the exact location of the gravesite, but speaking to reporters, Winckler said that in addition to the human remains, investigators also found more than 100 ID cards at the site, as well as around 200 items of clothing - raising hopes that some of the victims can be properly identified.

He also said that they are using drones to search for more bodies, and will try to match DNA samples from the site with those in a national database of people who have gone missing in recent years.

"The state has become a cemetery, that's the terrible and sad reality," Winckler told the Wall Street Journal, adding that of 212 municipalities in Veracruz, mass graves had been found in more than half of them. Hundreds of people are missing in the state.

Authorities found this grave in August after receiving a tip, but did not immediately inform the public because of security concerns. The last time such a grave was found, a group of mothers campaigning for authorities to search for their missing family members were also helped by anonymous tipsters: Two men handed them a hand-drawn map indicating where bodies were buried. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the mothers themselves hired diggers to find the grave, and then convinced authorities to help them.

Drug cartels are believed to be behind the slayings and burials. For years, cartels have operated in Veracruz and elsewhere in Mexico, targeting civilians and police, who are at times complicit with various criminal organizations. The victims may have been in rival gangs, been unlucky witnesses or have refused to collaborate with criminal groups that then tracked them down and killed them in retaliation.

Winckler told the Journal that his office now knows "that government officials collaborated with drug gangs to illegally arrest people of a rival group, torture them and then killed them and disappeared the bodies." He did not elaborate, but until late 2016, Veracruz's governor was Javier Duarte, who later went on the run after he was accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the state. He is now in jail awaiting trial, as is his former police chief, Arturo Bermudez. Bermudez has been accused of enforced disappearance. The remains from this grave are thought to be about two years old.

Roberto Campa, who was at the time Mexico's deputy interior minister for human rights, told the Journal after the earlier mass grave discovery was announced last year that "something like this can only happen with the complicity of the police."

"There is no way they could have done this for so long without the police knowing," he said.</s>In this undated photo provided by the Veracruz State Prosecutor's Office shows workers at the site of clandestine burial pits.

In this undated photo provided by the Veracruz State Prosecutor's Office shows workers at the site of clandestine burial pits.

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES HAVE discovered at least 166 bodies at a mass grave site in Veracruz state, prosecutors said Thursday, the latest horrifying find in a region hit by bloody drug cartel turf wars.

Home to the city of Veracruz, one of Mexico’s largest ports, the eastern state has a history of corrupt politics and grisly power struggles between rival cartels – a toxic mix that has caused an explosion of violence.

“The remains of at least 166 people have been found” in the latest mass grave site discovered in Veracruz, state prosecutor Jorge Winckler told journalists, making it one of the largest such sites so far.

The grave is located in central Veracruz, but authorities are not releasing the exact location for security reasons, he said. Forensic specialists are still working at the scene.

Winckler said investigators had also found 200 articles of clothing, 144 ID cards and other personal belongings at the site since exhumations began on 8 August.

An informer told authorities that hundreds of people in all were buried at the site, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“Based on forensic analysis of the discoveries, it had been determined that these are clandestine burial sites which are at least two years old,” it said.

Authorities have used drones and ground-penetrating radar to help them locate the bodies.

They released photographs of investigators combing through the thick vegetation at the site, wearing white protective suits and gloves.

There are at least 32 separate grave sites, they said.

Clothing items found at the site of a clandestine burial pit in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Mexico. Source: AP/PA Images

Activists accuse the state’s jailed ex-governor, Javier Duarte, of presiding over a rash of human rights abuses in Veracruz.

Two former state police chiefs and a string of ex-officials have been charged with running hit squads that abducted and presumably killed unwanted individuals during Duarte’s administration, from 2010 to 2016.

Duarte himself is in jail awaiting trial for corruption, and prosecutors recently added charges of ordering the hit squads to “disappear” his enemies.

“These forced disappearances were not only carried out with his knowledge but under his orders,” they said in June.

Investigators also accuse the ex-governor of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to buy luxury properties, Miami vacation homes and thoroughbred horses, leaving the once-wealthy state on the verge of bankruptcy.

Some 3,600 people have gone missing in Veracruz since 2006, according to the new government.

Families of some of Veracruz’s legions of missing persons are still digging at another mass grave found in 2016, where 280 bodies have been discovered so far.

They recently announced they had received a tip-off from drug traffickers about another mass grave near that site containing as many as 500 bodies.

It was unclear whether the grave described by prosecutors was the same site.

Mexico has been hit by a wave of violence since deploying the army to fight the country’s powerful drug cartels in 2006.

Since then, more than 200,000 people have been murdered, including a record 28,702 last year.

Another 37,000 people are reported as missing.</s>A secret mass burial site containing at least 166 skulls has been discovered, Mexican officials announced Thursday. The site is one of the largest mass graves found to date in the country.

The bodies — found in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz — had been buried for at least two years, according to a translation of a release from the State of Veracruz's prosecutor's office.

The region has been the site of bloody conflict between drug cartels, and the area has suffered from waves of extortion and kidnapping.

Officials have found clothes, personal possessions and other skeletal remains at the site, but skulls were used for counting purposes. Investigators discovered about 32 burial pits at the site.

State prosecutor Jorge Winckler said that the location of the graves would not be disclosed for security reasons.

Relatives of missing persons will have access to a photographic record of clothes, IDs and accessories found in the graves, a release says.

Hundreds of bodies have been found in burial pits in Veracruz before — 253 skulls were discovered in 2016 and 2017.

Aug. 10: Woman in her 80s caught smuggling $870,000 worth of heroin, border protection says

Around 29,000 murders were recorded in Mexico last year, a record high, according to a July Congressional Research Center report. That comes as previously stable Mexican drug cartels have been violently splintering.

Victims often include cartel members and people who are resisting recruitment into cartels, the BBC reports. Relatives of disappeared people have criticized the Mexican government, saying more could be done to help them locate loved ones, according to the publication.

More than 5,000 people are believed to have gone missing between 2010 and 2016 in the state of Veracruz alone, according to the Congressional Research Center report.
Mexican officials report the discovery of the remains of at least 166 people in a mass grave in Veracruz.