Extermination Center in Jalisco Was Used For Organ Trafficking, Report Claims

A small rural community in the state of Jalisco has been the center of attention in Mexico after a group of volunteers found a property allegedly used by the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) as a confinement, training and extermination center.

Members of Colectivo Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, a private nonprofit that helps find missing persons, alerted Mexican authorities of a ranch located in Teuchitlán after they found burnt human remains hidden underground. Further investigations have revealed that the property could have been the gravesite of hundreds of people, and, according to new testimonies, the place was also used by cartel members for human experiments and ridden with sexual abuse.

As reported by Infobae Mexico, Indira Navarro, leader of Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, told Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui in an interview that she received an anonymous call from a woman who said she had been held against her will at the property for three years.

"She told me that the cremation furnaces have been operating for more than 10 years. Everyone there knew about it but could not say anything as they were threatened by cartel members," Navarro said.

According to the woman's testimony, the criminal organization also used the property for organ trafficking. "They had doctors that came to the property to do experiments on people. It was obviously related to organ trafficking," the woman told Navarro.

During the interview Navarro revealed that the woman said she was witness of child sexual abuse. "There was a cartel leader that liked little girls, so they would bring them to him...we are talking about pedophilia," the witness said.

According to her testimony, there was a place in the property called "the pigpen," where cartel members would place individuals that either cried or showed signs of mental distress where pigs would attack and eat them alive.

The woman also told Colectivo Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco that prisoners were forced to wear orange uniforms and that those that tried to escape from the property were killed instantly.

She revealed that those who survived were then trained by cartel members and former military personnel so that they could be sent to conflict zones in the states of Zacatecas and Michoacán as cannon fodder.

As more details surrounding the Teuchitlán ranch continue to be reported, Mexico's Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said on March 11 that "it is not believable" that municipal and state authorities in Jalisco did not know about the atrocities that took place at the ranch.

"Before the Attorney General's Office can take over the case, we need to establish an investigation about what was really going on," Gertz Manero said. He added that federal authorities will continue communicating with Colectivo Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco to gather more information before starting an investigation.