Authorities found 14 bodies in hidden graves at three different locations in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, this week.

Seven of the bodies were found on abandoned properties in the Lomas del Mirador neighborhood in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, located around 30 kilometers southwest of the Jalisco capital.

The newspaper Milenio reported that the bodies were buried in the backyards of four abandoned homes on the same street.

According to local residents, officers from the state’s Fuerza Única police force had been stationed outside the homes since last week as they waited for the state Attorney General’s office to obtain a search warrant.

A judge issued the warrant Wednesday, which allowed the officers to enter the properties to recover the bodies.

Attorney General Raúl Sánchez Jiménez told a press conference that “the bodies appear to be five men and a woman,” making no mention of the seventh.

The bodies were taken to a city morgue to undergo autopsies. Police investigations into the crimes are ongoing.

Sánchez said the properties had been located as a result of intelligence work carried out by officers in the state police homicides and missing persons unit.

In the municipality of El Salto, authorities found another six bodies Thursday in a clandestine grave on a property in the neighborhood of El Zalate.

Municipal police said the bodies were wrapped in plastic and that the age of the victims ranged between 25 and 40. They were taken to a morgue for identification.

A single body was also exhumed this week from a makeshift grave in the neighborhood of La Mezquitera in the municipality of Tlaquepaque.

Violent crime has increased in Jalisco this year.

Among the most prominent cases in the state have been the kidnapping and murder of three film students in March, the disappearance of three Italian men in January and an attack on the former attorney general in May.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is suspected of being involved in all three cases.

Source: Milenio (sp)