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Mexican police officers in April (symbolic image)
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SERGIO MALDONADO / REUTERS
In the search for seven missing employees of a call center, 45 plastic bags with human remains have been found in Mexico. It is not yet known whether they are actually the missing, said the prosecutor's office of the state of Jalisco on Wednesday evening (local time) on Facebook. Both body parts of women and men had been found – how many people they belonged to still had to be investigated.
A first plastic bag had already been discovered on Tuesday on a 40-meter-deep slope north of the metropolis of Guadalajara. Since the area is difficult to walk on, the salvage work will continue in the following days, it said.
Since last week, they have been looking for two women and five men who worked in a call center in Zapopan, the neighboring city of Guadalajara. Why they disappeared is still unclear. The prosecutor's office announced that it would continue the search for the missing as long as the identity of the dead in the plastic bags was not clarified.
Mexico has been suffering from a wave of violence for years. Numerous drug cartels and other criminal groups are fighting for control of areas of influence, smuggling routes and protection money. They often have links to corrupt politicians and security forces.
Last year, almost 126,32 homicides were registered in the Latin American country of around 000 million people.
SWE/DPA