5 Plastic Bags Full Of Chopped Body Parts Found In Mexican State Plagued With Drug Cartels

Five plastic bags containing human remains were discovered by Mexican authorities on Saturday in the drug cartel-infested state of Colima.

According to Borderland Beat, the plastic bags were found on the Manzanillo highway leading to Armeria, close to the El Eden bridge, by state police and the military.

Authorities arrived at the scene after some worried locals called 911 to report what they had observed.

State police and the military blocked off the area for additional investigation after confirming that the plastic bags contained human remains.

According to reports, the contents of the plastic bags were delivered to the Semefo branch of the Forensic Medical Service for autopsies and identification.

Mexican drug cartels are to blame for the recent rise in violence in the Mexican state of Colima. The Independent Cartel of Colima, popularly known as Los Mezcales, and the Jalisco cartel broke, according to reports, and this caused the bloodshed.

According to Mexico News Daily, members of the Los Mezcales shifted allegiances from the notorious Sinaloa Cartel to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Previously, Los Mezcales served as the Jalisco cartel's armed branch in Colima state. But its sicarios made the decision to join forces with the Sinaloa Cartel.

In a fight that broke out inside a prison in Colima city last January, members of the two ostensibly allied groups first made their differences known. According to reports, the brawl claimed the lives of ten inmates and injured another seven.

Due to prior evidence linking members of the Jalisco cartel and Los Mezcales to the same criminal organization, the convicts were held together.

After the fight in prison, more fighting broke out in the streets of Colima City and nearby Villa de Álvarez.

The Los Mezcales was established in Colima's El Mezcalito district, which is regarded as a "key point" for the illegal drug trade in the nation's capital.

Authorities have not revealed the identity of the man allegedly in charge of the organization; he goes by the names "El Vaca" or "The Cow."

Several prominent public personalities were murdered in the Mexican state of Colima in 2020, further solidifying Colima's status as one of the nation's smallest and deadliest states.

There are extremely few people living in Colima. The state is home to less than one million inhabitants. However, there were 97 killings there per 100,000 people in 2019.

In comparison, larger states like Baja California, which had the second-highest homicide rate that year at 80 per 100,000 people, have homicide rates that are lower than that.

This high murder rate would have seemed inconceivable just a few years ago. Colima was previously regarded as one of Mexico's safest states, Insight Crime pointed out, as its murder rate in 2015 was only a third of what it was in 2019.

Colima has also discovered several mass graves along with the murder of prominent politicians and other public figures.

According to reports, many of those interred there belonged to victims of violence committed by Mexican drug cartels. The state has a power struggle between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel.