Mexican authorities said they found bodies and remains in the northwestern state of Sinaloa on Friday in connection with an ongoing search for 10 workers reported missing from a Canadian gold and silver mine. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office said one of the bodies had the “characteristics of one of the people reported as missing,” without detailing how many bodies or sets of remains were found. Sinaloa’s state prosecutor said the remains were located in El Verde, in the municipality of Concordia, where the mine is situated.
The case centers on the disappearances after Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver reported that 10 people were abducted from its facilities on Jan. 28. The company said it alerted authorities and that its crisis management and security response teams were involved in the search. The mine is located in a mountainous part of Sinaloa where authorities said cartel control has been contested for more than a year between rival Sinaloa Cartel factions.
In addition to the findings at the search area, the Attorney General’s Office reported arrests of four people it believed were tied to the workers’ disappearances. In the same general region, the Mexican Navy said it dismantled 10 camps used by cartel members. Federal authorities have also increased troop deployments to Sinaloa and launched an operation to find the missing workers.
Authorities said the mine’s location places it in an area that has repeatedly seen organized-crime activity, including actions targeting mines for criminal leverage. Organized crime in Mexico has at times moved into mining regions to extort operations or to control valuable ore, authorities said. The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment late Friday.