A group of volunteers searching for missing people says they have discovered at least 1,600 baby teeth in a mass grave in western Mexico, believed to belong to child victims of human trafficking.
The parents’ group, founded by Margarita López, a former Michoacán congresswoman, has spent the past two weeks rallying outside the Mexican attorney general’s office in Mexico City to demand genetic testing and tooth identification, but so far without success.
López told Mexican newspaper Milenio that his group, Buscando Cuerpos en Todo México, was accompanied by an investigator from Mexico’s attorney general’s office during a search in the Michoacán town of Zacapu in 2021 when they spotted smoke rising from a hillside.
They went to a property believed to belong to a Sinaloa drug trafficker, where they discovered what appeared to be human remains.
The official, identified only as “Braulio,” cleaned one of the teeth and determined that it belonged to a child, according to López.
López, whose daughter disappeared in 2011 and whose remains were found two years later in another part of the country, continued to search for missing people and said he had unearthed human bone fragments over the years.
On Wednesday, the group discovered what appeared to be baby teeth.
López has suggested so far, without evidence, that the teeth belonged to children aged 1 to 12 who may have been victims of organ trafficking or sexual exploitation.
The grisly discovery has not yet been independently confirmed through forensic testing, and federal and state authorities have not linked the teeth to specific victims.
The Michoacán state attorney general’s office rejected the allegations in a statement Thursday.
“From 2021 until today, no complaints, referrals to authorities or requests for forensic intervention related to these events have been received,” the office said, adding that Mexico’s attorney general’s office had not received any reports either.
López blasted the reaction in a country where more than 130,000 people – including 18,104 children – are missing.
“They want to downplay the incident, but the operation to recover the 1,600 milk teeth involved agents from the Michoacán State Attorney General’s Office, acting under an official mission order to ensure the security of the perimeter, and everything is documented in the preliminary investigation,” she wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
López also said a federal prosecutor and forensic personnel were present during the recovery.
“(They managed) the chain of custody of the remains found – I’m not lying,” she wrote.
López requested the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross to help with the investigation.
She also criticized Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for remaining silent about the discovery.
“Since the story of the 1,600 little teeth broke, they have either remained silent or denied the discovery,” López said.
The Post reached out to the Mexican attorney general’s office and the Michoacán state attorney general’s office for comment. López did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Gn world
