Mexico deploys forensic team to investigate alleged cartel extermination site in Nayarit

Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, instructed the Interior Ministry, via one outlet Search Commission, to dispatch a specialized forensic team to a rural estate in Nayarit after prosecutors announced the discovery of a suspected cartel extermination site. The property, called "El Dragón" in La Curva, Xalisco, was identified following an anonymous tip that led search groups and state prosecutors to a location containing clothing, a makeshift furnace, charred remains and a recent burial pit.

Authorities allege the Jalisco New Generation Cartel employed a metal drum filled with diesel, gasoline and soap to ignite bodies, then flushed the remains into a nearby stream. Forensic work began on Oct. 3, and the commission will now bolster the search, speed up the analysis of remains, and coordinate support for families of the missing. Nayarit Attorney General Ludmila Heredia likened the methods to those used at a previous site in Jalisco, while Governor Miguel Ángel Navarro warned of threats against officials. Federal troops have been deployed throughout the municipality to safeguard the operation and prevent retaliation by rival criminal cells.