Death in Durango: 4 die

To read background reports in the Durango mass graves, click here and here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A new grave has been found in Durango city in Durango state Wednesday, according to Mexican news reports.

According to a post on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, an army unit with the Mexican 10th Military Zone was dispatched to a location on Cristobal Colon in the capital at around 1100 hrs on a report of a mass grave, based on an anonymous citizen's complaint

Exhumation has already begun, and soldiers have already found one human arm.  The article hints more remains are expected.  

The last of the Durango state mass graves was declared last March by Durango Fiscalia General de Estado (FGE) or Durango state attorney general, Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragos, ending eight months of finds and exhumations that ended in January totalling 331 dead.  The graves, scattered throughout the state with most of them concentrated in Durango city, in toto are the largest mass grave find in the Mexican Drug War.

Fiscalia Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragoso

Cristobal Colon is the location where the last 50 remains were found.
So far, it is unclear if this new find will be added to the 331 death toll.

Many of the dead in the Durango mass graves date back years, as far as 2007.  Most of the dead from those finds, 287 of 331, had been strangled to death.  From the several news reports, it appears the victims were killed in the normal course of organized crime business in Durango state.

Far from a backwater in the Mexican Drug War, Durango state and its capital sits on Mexico Federal Highway 40, the northernmost continuous east west route, which stretches from the Sinaloa port of Mazatlan to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. 

Durango is also one of two state capitals, the other being Saltillo, Coahuila also located on the highway.  Mexico Federal Highway 40 also goes through the La Laguna region of Mexico with one of the heaviest concentrations of Mexican security troops in the north.

Three other dead were found in Durango state since last Tuesday, according to web reports posted on El Context de Durango news daily.

• An unidentified man in his 20s was found strangled to death in Durango municipality near the village of Metates Tuesday.  The victim was wrapped in a blanket and left on Mexico Federal Highway 40 at about the 27 kilometer marker between Durango and Mazatlan
• Two unidentified individuals in an advanced state of decomposition were found in Gomez Palacio municipality Tuesday.  The victims were found on a road connecting Jimenez ejido with Huitron ejido by a resident of the La Laguna region of Mexico, which includes Torreon, Coahuila as well as Gomez Palacio.

In an unrelated development, a Mexican Army unit seized drugs and guns near a village in Pueblo Nuevo in Durango, according to a post on El Sol de Mexico news daily website.

The raid took place two kilometers from the village of Cebollas where soldiers seized 417.8 kilograms of marijuana packaged in 44 units.  A total of 195 kilograms of marijuana seed in 13 sacks, and three sacks with a total of 44.9 kilograms of poppy seeds were seized as well.

Weapons taken in the raid included two rifles, one grenade launcher, 29 weapons magazines and 120 rounds of ammunition.

No detentions were reported in the raid.

Pueblo Nuevo municipality was the location last month where six unidentified suspected drug members died in an intergang shootout.  That shootout took place near the village of La Hierbabuena near the border with Sinaloa state.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

© Copyright 2012 by Chris Covert
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