The mayor of Mexico was arrested for suspected drug cartel training camp, officials said.

Mayor from a small town in western Mexico was arrested as part of the investigation Drug Cartel Training Camp A federal official said the place where human bones and clothes were found.

Teuchitlán Mayor José Murguía Santiago was arrested as part of an investigation by the government prosecutor Jalisco’s new generation cartelfederal sources told AFP on Saturday.

Sources requested anonymity because they did not have the right to talk to the media.

Murgia was arrested Saturday afternoon, according to federal arrest records.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency says the cartel’s ranks at about 19,000, and after splitting it, it quickly developed into an extremely violent and capable force. Sinaloa Cartel Killed Sinaloa Cartel Capo Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal in 2010.

As some local media have said, the “Horror Ranch” was first discovered in September 2024 at the Izaguirre Ranch in western Nissas. Six months later, those looking for the missing relatives found out costumes and human remains, raising questions about preliminary research, including the failure to thoroughly search the site.

Human Rights Watch called it “a clear place of mass killing.”

Senior officials said the cartel allegedly used the ranch to train the newly recruited gunmen.

The group Guerreros Buscadores, a group dedicated to finding missing relatives, collectively described Teuchitlán Ranch as a “center of extinction” with a “secret crematorium” in which the cartels considered to be forced recruits.

Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters in late March that “there is no evidence that this is an extermination camp”.

But he also said a arrested recruiter said the cartel members were tortured and killed recruits who refused to cooperate or attempted to escape.

The Attorney General’s Office denied the execution was carried out systematically, and he took over the investigation after Guerreros Buscadores’ complaint.

The group found buried bones, clothes, shoes and other objects on the ranch, and authorities did not notice during a search in September, when they raided it after reports of the shooting.

According to the Jalisco State Attorney’s Office, 10 people were arrested, two prisoners were released, and a body was found along with the skeletal remains in September.

In addition to Mayor Murguía, about a dozen arrests were made in the case, including the police chief from the neighboring municipalities and two of his officers.

More than 127,000 people It has been registered as missing in Mexico since the government announced the drug trafficking organization in 2006.

According to the state, Jalisco has the largest number of missing persons, with more than 15,000 cases.