Authorities searching a vacant property in eastern Tijuana may have found the remains of dozens of drug-war victims gone missing after they were dissolved in lye by a man known as El Pozolero — the stew maker. “We believe that there could be more than 100 bodies dissolved there,” said Abel Galván Gallardo, head of Baja California’s organized-crime unit. “There is the total possibility of being able to tell families that their loved one is here.”
The search began Tuesday and is likely to last at least into next week, Galván said Thursday.
By Friday afternoon, federal investigators had discovered 80 human bones and 25 teeth, said Fernando Ocegueda, leader of the group United for the Disappeared of Baja California, which has been collaborating closely with authorities in the excavation effort. The organization represents family members of 280 people, many of whom disappeared at the height of drug violence in Baja California — from 2007 to 2010.
Human-rights activists believe scores of people have disappeared amid fighting among rival drug-trafficking groups and between law enforcement and organized crime. Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights has said more than 18,000 Mexicans were reported missing between 2006 and mid-2011. The Washington Post, citing unpublished government documents, reported Friday that the number is closer to 25,000.
In eastern Tijuana, investigators are combing through what Galván and Ocegueda described as “organic mass” found in a pit dug four feet underground. Their goal is to unearth as many bones and teeth as possible, then match the DNA from that evidence with DNA samples provided by victims’ family members.
Ocegueda said a second pit was discovered on the property Friday, but that investigators were still combing through the first one. He also said each pit is connected by a duct to a small room “where they would cook the bodies.” A spigot would be opened after the corpses were dissolved, allowing the remains to fall by gravity into the pit.
The bodies were likely dissolved by Santiago Meza López, nicknamed El Pozolero, who confessed to liquefying the corpses of about 300 organized-crime victims by the time Mexican troops captured him outside Ensenada in January 2009. Meza reported to Teodoro García Simental, a member of the Arellano Félix cartel who broke from that organization and formed an alliance with the Sinaloa cartel. Known for his brutality, García was arrested in February 2010.
Ocegueda said his group led investigators to the eastern Tijuana site in the struggling neighborhood of Maclovio Rojas, located off the free road to Tecate. He was able to locate it after being leaked a report of Meza’s confession, which said he had disposed of bodies in a cockfighting ranch.
“There’s something like 80 cockfighting ranches in that area,” Ocegueda said, and it took two years to pinpoint the correct spot.
The site is one of five where Meza said he had disposed the corpses of García’s victims, according to Ocequeda. United for the Disappeared of Baja California said it has looked at nearly three dozen sites in the past two years, including 13 that involved federal investigators.
Two of those sites yielded remains, Ocegueda said, but this week’s excavation seems the most promising to date. Remains at the previous loations were too decomposed to make any positive identifications, Ocegueda said.
“This shows that when you set a goal, you can reach it,” Ocegueda said. “We had to put a lot of pressure on the authorities.”
He plans to continue searching for the two other locations where Meza reportedly dissolved bodies. “For me, it is a great satisfaction having found this — and perhaps bring peace to some families,” said Ocegueda, whose own son has been missing since he was seized from the family’s residence in 2006.
Saturday 1 December 2012
http://www.nctimes.com/tijuana-site-may-contain-up-to-dissolved-bodies/article_ecc61401-ae99-545b-ae6c-d3f16e1c156a.html
No comments:
Post a Comment