Skeletal remains found in suspected drug cartel ‘kitchen’

A volunteer group from Mexico found piles of charred bones hidden in two buildings at a suspected cartel “extermination site” in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

The state coroner confirmed on August 26 that the group had found four skeletal remains and 54 bone fragments at one site.

At a second site, the group found seven ‘tambos’ containers, one of which contained fragments of human remains.

For the Love of the Disappeared Collective (Colectivo Amor por los Desaparecidos), the group that made the shocking discovery, notified authorities of its findings on Monday. The volunteers are primarily focused on searching for missing persons and raising awareness about disappearances.

“During searches by the collective, state authorities noted bone fragments exposed to heat in two locations, one near kilometer 85 of the Reynosa-Matamoros highway and the other on the Sierrita ranch (west) of Matamoros,” the attorney general’s office said.

Due to exposure to heat, this means that the bodies are burned. Mexican drug gangs often burned bodies in barrels or vats in secret cremation sites known as “kitchens.”

Sometimes called “narco kitchens” or “cocinas” in Spanish, these gruesome locations serve as makeshift crematories where drug cartels decompose or burn the bodies of their victims to erase evidence of their crimes.

Martha Quintana, a member of the volunteer group, said during a Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday: “We are at the site where the fire extermination was exposed. We are going to show some of the clothes that were found at the site to see if anyone can identify them.”

Images show discarded metal barrels strewn in the undergrowth near an abandoned house. Searchers, wearing surgical gloves, carefully pick through torn clothing, some of which appears to have bloodstains.

In Matamoros, there is violent cartel activity as the Gulf Cartel is engaged in a turf war with the Los Zetas Cartel.

The Gulf Cartel, which controls the region where the remains were found, is one of the oldest organized crime syndicates and drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.

The town where the remains were discovered is located directly on the U.S.-Mexico border, across from Brownsville, Texas.

The Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office said in a statement: “This office reaffirms its commitment to working with the families in the search and location of the missing persons.”

The Public Prosecution Service has indicated that it will conduct DNA testing on the burned remains to identify the victims.

For the Love of the Disappeared Collective helped Mexican police locate 27 hacked bodies hidden in Reynosa last year.

In March, authorities discovered 10 burned bodies in the border state of Nuevo León.

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