TAPACHULA, Mexico — Recently, authorities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas uncovered eleven secret graves containing the remains of fifteen men, amidst an ongoing conflict between the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación drug cartels. This troubling discovery was made public on Sunday.

Chiapas Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar communicated the details via his social media, indicating that the grim findings were the result of a police operation in the city of La Concordia, located close to the Guatemalan border. During this operation, law enforcement apprehended four individuals believed to be linked to the case, reportedly seizing weapons and drugs from them.

According to a statement from the state’s prosecutor’s office, the operation covered two separate locations. At the first site, three bodies were found in three different graves, while the second location contained eight graves with twelve bodies in total.

The prosecutor’s office highlighted the use of advanced technology during the investigation, such as drones and geo-radars, along with aerial surveillance, ground searches, forensic fieldwork, excavation techniques, and drilling methods to locate the graves.

Chiapas Prosecutor General Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca mentioned that a separate clandestine grave, which included charred corpses, was discovered in Emiliano Zapata, a neighboring area to La Concordia. However, he refrained from providing additional information due to the bodies’ severely deteriorated condition, which made identification challenging.

The ongoing strife over drug trafficking routes, the illegal movement of migrants, and the arms trade has led to a humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 10,000 individuals in recent years, including many Mexicans seeking refuge in Guatemala, according to reports from various humanitarian organizations.