19 bodies found in secret graves in Mexico’s Colima state

MEXICO CITY – Authorities in Mexico’s Pacific coast state of Colima say they have recovered 19 bodies from 11 clandestine gravesites.

The state prosecutor’s office says the bodies were found on a plot of land in the community of Santa Rosa in the Tecoman municipality.

Colima Gov. Jose Ignacio Peralta Sanchez told local media Tuesday that he couldn’t rule out finding more bodies.

Peralta said Colima has a serious organized crime problem, but it was too early to say which criminal group was responsible. He says authorities plan to perform DNA testing and compare results with a database of the missing.

According to Mexico’s national statistics institute, Colima had the highest murder rate in Mexico at 113 per 100,000 residents in 2017.